Thread by @dustychipura

One of the most under-talked about things around #ADHD is what it means to be pregnant, and to go through pregnancy with ADHD.

first of all, the biggest question for pregnant people is often around meds. If they are on them, do they have to stop? can they breastfeed on meds? If they are seeking an ADHD diagnosis at the time, can they start meds?

I'm not here to advise anyone about their medication situation since i'm not a doctor, but here's what I can tell you;

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO CONSENSUS ON WHETHER A PERSON CAN OR SHOULD TAKE MEDS WHILE PREGNANT OR BREASTFEEDING

what I mean by that is I've heard the gamut of experiences; from people being literally kicked out of their doctor's offices, told they would have to stop breastfeeding, to being told "yeah no problem you can continue" or, "you can continue at a lower dosage/ on IR meds"

so the whole meds situation first and foremost is frustrating and confusing. It was explained to me by a fertility psychologist like this, "all our research looks at people who've taken street-class stimulants (like meth) and so of course the research shows impacts on the fetus"

there haven't been any good, scientifically vetted studies on pregnant people taking small doses of prescribed stimulants for ADHD management and the effects on babies (I could absolutely be wrong about this mind you, but my fertility psych said there weren't and I didn't find)

** please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong **

so thats JUST MEDS.

Now let's talk about what you need to do while you're pregnant.

you need to take a daily prenatal. You need to go to checkups. Toward the end of your pregnancy those checkups could become weekly or more often. There's A LOT of schedule management that goes into having a pregnancy. That's on top of anything you're planning like a baby shower.

You need to prepare for baby's arrival (esp if it's your first baby) so decisions and choices about - which can be really overwhelming for the ADHD brain - and you need to plan and organize things to be ready, like having a hospital bag, diapers, a child-safe environment

(spoiler alert: you got time to child-proof your environment later, that lil bugger isn't going anywhere on their own for awhile!)

so okay, lots to remember and do, lots of choices to make, and possibly making them all medication-free depending on what you and your doctor decide. Sounds like a lot right? Let's talk about what you're NOT supposed to do.

Depending on what culture and country you live in, here are some of the things you might be supposed to abstain from:

- hot baths/hot tubs
- sushi
- deli meats
- alcohol at all
- ibuprofen
- certain other kinds of medication
- heavy lifting
- laying on your left side

(obviously some of these are universal and this list is very eurocentric, I just wanted to make a point about the number of things and not all of them are universally agreed upon)

Now imagine you're a person with impulse control and memory issues. I can't tell you how many times I panicked during three of my four pregnancies realizing I was doing something I wasn't supposed to do.

One of my pregnancies was a missed miscarriage and *to this day* I can't help but wonder if it was my fault because maybe I took a medication I wasn't supposed to or did something I wasn't supposed to do?

When you've lived your whole life not being pregnant all of a sudden having to occupy your body in a different way and care for it in a different way is a thing that can... just not register sometimes.

I am lucky in that I enjoy a wide variety of foods but if you are a neurodivergent person with sensory issues or food sensitivities, making sure you're meeting your needs nutritionally could be a challenge during pregnancy.

and here's the icing on top of the cake:

hormones and their impact on your emotions and memory.

We've all heard of "mommy brain" or "pregnancy brain". So imagine that, but quadrupled. The forgetting is SO. INTENSE.

the impact on my emotional regulation was... more than noticeable. For a neurotypical or non-ADHD person, there can be huge mood swings with pregnancy. I developed anxiety-based insomnia. My rumination was SO INTENSE I couldn't sleep at night.

I'd wake up and cry for hours from rejection sensitivity. When I was a teenager, it used to happen around my period; I'd get extremely rejection sensitive and ruminate on every little thing I said or did that might cause someone not to like me. With pregnancy, it was EVERY NIGHT

the thing is, even though people are kind and caring, you still have responsibilities and things you gotta do esp if you have other kids. So you still have to be functional. Emotional dysregulation can impact our functionality.

Strong emotions are so distracting they can impair our ability to attend to the present moment (creating more issues for distractibility and memory problems) and can obviously impact on how we deal with our partners, coworkers, family, that lady behind the counter... 😬😬😬

I'm not trying to scare you; every year many many people with ADHD get pregnant and become parents successfully. I am just saying that there are special considerations to be taken when you have ADHD and how you manage your ADHD through pregnancy.