Pregnancy and childbirth are two remarkable experiences. Being able to bring life into the world is such a beautiful thing and it’s unfortunate that some women don’t get the opportunity to do so because of certain medical conditions that they face. When it comes to living with any type of disease or sickness, sadly there are many factors that may stop you from doing certain things that you may have wanted to do at some point in your life. For instance, people living with diabetes may not be able to participate in a hot dog eating contest, or people living with pelvic inflammatory disease may not be able to conceive children through sex. But what about people living with multiple sclerosis? Is pregnancy still a possibility for them?
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease that affects young adults between the ages of 20-40. MS affects your brain and spinal cord, which is your body’s nervous system.
It’s when your immune system attacks your nerve fibers and myelin shealing in your brain and spinal cord. When this happens, for some patients it debilitates your body physically. These patients usually lose their ability to walk, write and or speak.
There are multiple types of MS as well, each having different symptoms and effects on a person.
Most people when diagnosed with multiple sclerosis usually have relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis. When living with this form of MS, the symptoms that you may see are impaired mobility and vision, spasticity, speech difficulty, fatigue, cognitive effects and more.
These symptoms usually last days or weeks and then can disappear for months or even a year.
Since this form of MS is remitting (the symptoms can come back), patients who were diagnosed with relapse remitting multiple sclerosis usually have to stay on medication even if they are in remission. The other forms of MS are Secondary Progressive, Primary Progressive and Benign multiple sclerosis.
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The good news about MS is that if you were ever planning to become pregnant, you still can. Being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis does not affect your chances of becoming pregnant or having a healthy pregnancy and baby. There has been no reported evidence that multiple sclerosis causes infertility and nor has there been any evidence that shows women who become pregnant while living with MS have more birth defects or suffer a harsher pregnancy and delivery than women who were not diagnosed.
Fortunately, there are no risks that the baby may face during pregnancy. Multiple Sclerosis is usually diagnosed during the childbearing years, but can actually happen at any age.
Even with this information, there’s no evidence that your baby will be diagnosed with MS during pregnancy. The only worry that you may face is that you may have a small gestational age baby. This means that the baby is smaller than normal when delivered.
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Though some women have not had any worsening or symptoms at all, if you become pregnant while living with MS there is a possibility that you may experience the same symptoms you were facing before pregnancy just slightly more intense.
The fatigue you feel during a flare-up may worsen or you may experience muscle weakness that makes you more likely to fall. There’s also the possibility of you being wheelchair dependent while pregnant.
It’s stated that you may experience flare-ups during the first 3 to 6 months of your pregnancy but towards your third trimester is when your symptoms start to improve.
You may have trouble pushing the baby out and have to deliver your baby through a c-section procedure because there may be no pelvic sensation in your body. This makes it difficult to tell if you are in labor.
As long as you are still taking your medication the way you and your doctor discussed and you are taking the necessary steps and precautions to be safe and healthy while living with multiple sclerosis, you can experience a healthy pregnancy, delivery and baby.
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