18w blather
I just learned today that Metformin can interfere with the body's absorption of folic acid, which means that women who take Metformin during pregnancy risk brain and neural tube problems like anencephaly (yikes) and such. I have been taking Metformin for all 18 weeks of my pregnancy and I learned this TODAY. I am going to assume that none of my doctors knew this because otherwise I'm going to get awfully upset.
I'm pretty sure I'm safe not only because I saw my baby's brain and spinal cord on the 14w ultrasound, but because I have always taken Metformin in the morning with breakfast and the prenatals at night right before bed. And I take 2mg of folic acid instead of the 800mcg recommended for pregnant folks so maybe that helped? I don't know, but you'd better believe I'll be looking for that brain again on Friday. Anencephaly and microcephaly are two of my biggest nightmares. I can't believe I ever decided to try to get pregnant while working in Early Intervention. What was I thinking?
Anyway, enough about fatal birth defects, let's talk about something more cheery - our full anatomy scan is on Friday morning, which is a mere two days from today! Here's hoping everything looks fantastic and we also get a between-the-legs shot, because I am now dying to know. I keep having paranoia that we will get to the u/s and the baby will be dead because it recently happened to a gal online who was 2 weeks ahead of me. She had a perfect amnio at 15w and went for her Level II at 19w and the baby was dead - no explanation. Even though I last heard the heartbeat on the doppler last Friday night, I still worry. Good god, how on earth could that happen? Ugh.
I guess I'm not great about cheery topics. Whoops.
In the "Aah, the emotional side of pregnancy" department, I have really been jonesing for cake for the past week or so, and last night somehow conned Jen into going to the grocery store to get me some sort of cake/cupcake/snacky. She came back with something and I was so excited until I saw that it had trans fat in it (and we have decided to avoid trans fat during pregnancy) and I had to put the delicious cake down and say no. I went to bed crying at 9pm because I was so devastated by the Cake Tease.
Actually, it still makes me sad.
posted by Jude @ 9:02 AM
4 Comments:
I've not read yet about anyone taking Met past week 14....At what point will you be stopping the Met?
You know. Just curious.
pee. ess.
Atkins Farm in Amherst makes delicious cake. And I think they're trans-fat free.
I've been tapering down since 16w. Since I've been taking it for two years, I was a little scared to just flat-out stop. I just started taking 500mg/day this morning... Originally I was taking 2000mg.
There is actually some talk now about continuing Metformin throughout pregnancy in women with insulin resistance to help ward off gestational diabetes, although a friend of mine continued to take Met and ended up with GD anyway.
p.s. Thanks for the hit on the cake. I shall have to investigate.
I don't know if this will help or not BUT: I took Metformin (1500 mg) for insulin resistance throughout my entire pregnancy. I did a TON of research and met with specialists to make the decision. The basic consensus was that it was safer than high blood sugar during the pregnancy.
AND baby was fine. I didn't know about the folic acid issue but when I did the research (2006) there were no reported cases of fetal abnormalities due to metformin use.
FYI: Metformin is expressed in breastmilk in higher concentration than that which passes the placental barrier. SO I stopped while breastfeeding.
Take care,
Lurker from 'Hope and Megan's website'
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