Epilepsy and Childbirth

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Henri IV

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I signed up mainly just to help you get your forum started, but I do have a useful comment to make about epilepsy.

(I had a few grand mal seizures myself, many years ago, caused by a medication presecribed for something completely unrelated, and I've seen how people react after my seizures, and I've seen other people's seizures, but none of that has anything to do with the story.)

I once talked to a woman who had a grand mal seizure which caused her to give birth, in an ordinary hospital bed. I know that it sounds unbelievable, but she insisted that the baby shot out of her and might have been badly hurt, had her husband not caught the baby. The doctors assumed that what actually caused the seizure was the breathing exercises she had been taught to do, and said that women with a history of grand mal should take this into account.

I knew the woman, and I'm sure that the story was true.

Thanks.
Me.
 
Hi Henry IV, welcome to the forum. We appreciate your help!

Epilepsy is definitely a mysterious disorder - there are so many variations of it. Before I met Stacy and started learning about it, I would never have suspected that folks who are not epileptic can still have grand mal seizures induced under certain circumstances. The human organism (and I use that term to denote the whole mind/body/spirit) is both incredibly strong and weak at the same time. It's good that you were able to pinpoint and stop the cause of your seizures.

I've heard stories about babies shooting out of the womb before, but ascribe them mostly to urban legend. The cervix has to dilate and open for a vaginal birth and seizures cause all muscles to contract, so I have a hard time imagining how the scenario could happen. Fortunately, in our case, Stacy's grand mal seizures with our second child in-utero did not cause a premature delivery (or water to break).

Breathing patterns have been associated with triggering seizures though, so it is possible that your acquaintance induced a seizure with her breathing technique. However, pregnant women don't usually practice the breathing techniques in earnest until they are already in labor.

In any event, it is very scary to watch a woman pregnant with your child having a grand mal seizure. I don't wish that on anyone.
 
As I remember the story, the woman was already in an early stage of labor, or in a stage of pregnancy just before labor. Remembering many years ago to my wife's births, that probably means that she was partly dilated.

Are you sure that all muscles contract during a grand mal seizure? Somehow, I would have assumed that smooth muscle is controlled very differently from voluntary muscle, and that the cervix is smooth muscle, but I really don't know. All of my little knowledge of these things is as a husband and father; I'm not a professional.

As to "non-epileptics" having grand mal seizures from medications, from what I've seen, it's not all that rare. If you look in the poison handbooks, many common medications cause convulsions in case of overdose. Both in my case and in others I've heard, the doctors (always after the fact, of course) like to say that the seizure was an oversensitivity to a common side effect in a person with a "low seizure threshold". (They love that expression!)

Thanks.
Me.
 
No, I'm not sure about all muscles contracting. I know that Stacy is not breathing when she is having a grand mal seizure and she turns blue frequently after the convulsions stop for a period before she starts breathing again. As far as I can tell, all her muscles are engaged. I'm not a professional either, though, so your knowledge of the event is probably about the same as mine.

I have noticed that not all grand mal seizures (at least Stacy's) are equal. Sometimes I can move her limbs (ie. adjust them to a new position) while she is convulsing, and other times I cannot (they are rigid or locked). I guess the force that is being applied to each muscle varies.

As for non-epileptics having seizures, yes, that is what I was referring to - it's just that I had never been exposed to the subject prior to meeting Stacy. I guess I'm either fortunate, young enough or both never to have required any of those medications (or known anyone else who did).
 
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