Antidepressants & Birth Defects – An Appeal to Mothers-to-be

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Antidepressants? JUST DON’T DO IT.

It’s unfortunately now a well-documented fact that mothers that take antidepressants like Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft and Celexa run a massive risk (i.e. are 600% more likely) to bear a child with terrible congenital birth defects like persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), a serious and potentially fatal circulatory condition.

It’s also an unpleasant fact that mothers-to-be are heavily marketed to by drug companies, attempting to push their pills as a cure-all for work-related stress, relationship stress, family problems, and virtually every other describable condition (good or bad) that person might find themselves in.  So, if it wasn’t already bad enough that you might encounter side-effects like heart attacks, suicidal thoughts or plans for mass homicide at your local school or university, if you all of the sudden find out that you’re pregnant, you could have just condemned your child to being born with a heart with holes in it.

It’s True, Pregnant Women Can Get Stressed Out

The first thing any psychiatrist or pro-drug supporter will tell you when you try to advise against antidepressants is that one is trying to say their various conditions and syndromes and phobias and such don’t exist.

Well, those symptoms of stress absolutely exist, it’s just that DRUGS are not the solution.

After now being the (hopefully supportive enough) husband to a family of two (edit: now 3) beautiful kids, I’ve gotten a chance to weather through and observe many of the million different ways that an impending addition to the family can be stressful.   In addition to the logistical changes, the work stresses, the financial stresses that can ensue, etc, anyone who knows their Dianetics can tell you that being pregnant can bubble a ton of stressful and painful experiences to the surface – ones that can act on both mommy and daddy in adverse ways.

As such, my appeal to any family who has found out they’re expecting a baby – or for any that are even thinking about “eventually” having kids (as sometimes the two above are the same), is as follows:

Do not fall into the trap of attempting to medicate away any problems, stress or depression you may be encountering.  There is a reason for any of that stress, and whatever your philosophy, the right thing to do is to find the root of those problems and handle them.

If you want some ideas on what to do to help lower stress when you’re pregnant, try this article on 11 Tips for a Stress-Free Pregnancy.   Or if you just want to talk, contact us.

2 thoughts on “Antidepressants & Birth Defects – An Appeal to Mothers-to-be

  1. Great article Tad! This needs to be more widely known. A lot of people don’t really understand the risks and don’t know about the other solutions they can have.

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