Pregnancy with Vestibular Migraine
In honor of June as Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, I am writing about my illness, chronic vestibular migraine.
I began suffering from chronic vestibular migraine at age 32, and I was diagnosed at age 34. It is not uncommon for chronic migraine to strike women in their childbearing years. I have been living with this illness for about 6 ½ years now, and I have been pregnant 3 times. My two sons are 3 and almost 1. One of the popular topics among women with vestibular migraine in online support groups online is how the disorder affects pregnancy and delivery. Everyone’s experience is different, but I am sharing my answers to the most common questions from women like me.
Q: Were you able to stay on your medication when you were pregnant?
A: Yes. When I found a medication that decreased my dizziness to the point that I felt confident that I could raise kids while living with this illness, I talked to my OBGYN. He referred me to a perinatologist (a high risk OBGYN). They are sometimes also called maternal-fetal medicine specialists. My new doctor went over all of the risks involving my medications, and we developed a plan that my regular OBGYN followed when I got pregnant a few months later. This is my first suggestion to moms-to-be with VM: meet with a perinatalogist! In my experience, they are more familiar with the risks of various medication and can help you make a decision about your medication if you are or become pregnant. I wasn’t able to function without my medication so being able to stay on it was a big factor in our decision to start a family.
Q: Did your condition improve or worsen with pregnancy?
A: My condition improved in one way and otherwise stayed the same. Beginning around the start of the second trimester in my last two pregnancies, I noticed that I could read longer without causing increased dizziness right away. Reading is my biggest trigger and one of the reasons I no longer practice as an attorney. A few weeks after I noticed this improvement in both pregnancies, I started to feel worse and increased my medication, bringing me back to the improved state regarding my ability to read. During my last pregnancy, I received progestin shots, but they didn’t affect my dizziness levels. I’ve heard from other women that their conditions improved and that some conditions became worse. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s any way to predict how you will feel during pregnancy.
Q: How did you feel after delivery?
A: Right after delivery, I was too dizzy to get out of bed. I had two c-sections, and each time I was very dizzy when I attempted to get out of bed, until about 24 hours after delivery. The first time, I had a medication during recovery that I thought might have caused my dizziness, but the second time I did not have that medication and was still dizzy. My doctor thought it may have been due to the drastic hormone drop that occurs after delivery. Both times, my baby was in the NICU, so I didn’t have the typical experience taking care of them in the room with me. I rested and pumped while my husband visited the NICU for that first day, and then I went down to see my little guy in the evening. I breastfeed my second baby in the recovery room right after delivery, but then he had breathing issues and didn’t breastfeed again for another day or so.
In the weeks that followed, I felt dizzier than usual, but not so much that I couldn’t function. My first baby was born at 33 weeks and 4 days, and he spent 26 days in the NICU. I was able to visit him every day after I was discharged. My second baby was only in the NICU for a week and was full term. With him, I actually had about a week of feeling better around the time he was 3 or 4 weeks old; it seemed to be a fluke, but I enjoyed reading a book while I nursed him! For both babies, it took several months to feel back to my baseline, and then I decreased my medication gradually back to my pre-pregnancy levels.
My youngest son turns one this month, and I can say that having children hasn’t had a net effect on my vestibular migraine condition. Please remember that I am not a healthcare professional, and this is only a description of my personal experiences. For anyone planning a family, I encourage you to start with a perinatalogist and make the choices that are right for you.
Photos by Honest to Goodness Photography
