Medications I Took During My Pregnancy

While I was pregnant with Kyla, I took some medications that might be noteworthy to remember, if someday in the future they come out with findings on what causes ABS.

I have a heart condition called Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP). It is not something I knew about until about the age of 23 or so. I ended up in the ER two different times until finally figuring out what was wrong with my heart. I believe it was my second echo that the cardiologist noticed that one valve in my heart is too large and when my heart pumps this valve doesn't function correctly and is floppy; causing me to have heart palpitations. When I first found out, I didn't do anything about it, but after a while it got to the point where I had no energy at all - even doing dishes exhausted me, which was really weird, so I went back to my cardiologist and he put me on Zebeta (bisoprolol fumarate) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000927, which greatly improved my symptoms.

Once I got pregnant, I called my soon to be OB-GYN doctor to make an appointment to see him. Since they won't let you go in for your first appointment until you are like 8 weeks pregnant (I think because many women miscarry the first couple weeks), I asked the ladies to check with the doctor to make sure that it was okay for me to continue taking my heart meds. The doctor personally called me back and told me that it was fine. So I continued to take it. Later when I finally met with my doctor in his office, he said he would get in touch with my cardiologist and double check that it was safe, which he did and my cardiologist said it was fine. When I was about 6 months pregnant my symptoms seemed to disappear and had for some time, so I just stopped taking the Zebeta. The doctors had told me that I could continue up until a few days before I was to deliver, but I stopped several months before that.

A month or so ago I had my yearly echo appointment with my cardiologist and I told him what had happened with Kyla and her ABS and asked if he thought that could've been caused from the Zebeta and he said no, it is one of the safest blood pressure medications you can take. The only thing I can link together is that I know for sure this medication caused my blood pressure to drop. One time during a doctors appointment for a cold the nurse took my blood pressure and it was very low and I was like "is that OK?" She said yes, as long as you feel OK - which I didn't, I felt real light-headed all the time, especially when I would stand up. It could be possible that my blood pressure was so low that maybe that affected Kyla's development? I have no idea, just putting the questions that have run through my head down on paper.

After I had Kyla, I continued to feel fine and still do and have not taken this medication since stopped at 6 months gestation - I do not really need it. I learned that pregnancy can change the makeup of your heart (since the blood volume of a pregnant woman increases while carrying a child). My cardiologist did tell me before I got pregnant that most women who have MVP feel better when they are pregnant, so this was the case for me as well and I have continued to feel fine ever since.

Other medications I took during my pregnancy but only in my 3rd trimester (after Kyla had already finished developing and I was told were safe to take by my Asthma doctor) (for my Asthma that randomly developed and got pretty bad - apparently caused from hormones from being pregnant) were Singulair, Xopenex HFA and Pulmicort Flexhaler. These medications kept me out of the ER (except for once) for not being able to breathe! Soon after Kyla was born, I was online on one of the ABS websites and I volunteered to be a part of a research study through Harvard (I believe it was) who was doing something with research on ABS and wanted to know information from those affected (or mother's of), but I never heard back - weird.