Use these epilepsy and pregnancy tools and resources to help make your plan for a successful pregnancy and delivery. We’ve designed these tools to be downloaded, printed, and shared with your care team and your support team (e.g., loved ones and family members), so be sure to print them for your own use and pass them along.
Download These Tools and Brochures
The Epilepsy & Pregnancy Journey: Planning for Success
Explore the four steps of the pregnancy journey and things you can do for a successful pregnancy with epilepsy.
Epilepsy Diagnosis & Living With Epilepsy - Questions to Ask Your Doctors
Here are some questions to ask your providers about living with epilepsy before planning for your pregnancy.
Pregnancy Planning with Epilepsy - Questions to Ask Your Doctors
These are important questions to ask your healthcare provider as you plan to get pregnant.
Pregnancy & Delivery with Epilepsy - Questions to Ask Your Doctors
These are important questions to ask your healthcare team during your pregnancy and as you prepare for delivery.
Postpartum & Epilepsy - Questions to Ask Your Doctors
Here are some questions to ask your doctors as you plan to care for you and your new baby.
What We Know About Anti-Seizure Medications (ASMs) & Pregnancy
Learn which anti-seizures medications are best suited for pregnancy for people with epilepsy.
What We Know About Birth Control Options
Learn which birth control options have the best success rates for people taking anti-seizure medications (ASMs).
Anti-seizure Medication Tapering Schedule Tool
This scheduling tool helps patients and clinicians work out a clear medication tapering plan for after delivery.
Epilepsy & Pregnancy Appointment Calendar
Track your doctor appointments, key milestones, and upcoming activities all in one place.
Featured Sites
Epilepsy Foundation - My Seizure Event Diary
This paper calendar allows people to record details of what happens during a seizure. This can be helpful for people with more than one type of seizure or when more information is needed to diagnose the type of seizure.
Epilepsy Foundation - Seizure Medication List
Today, there are close to 30 anti-seizure medications that can be prescribed for the treatment of seizures due to epilepsy.
Epilepsy Foundation - Epilepsy & Seizures Helpline
The Epilepsy & Seizures 24/7 Helpline has trained information specialists standing by to answer your questions about epilepsy and seizures and provide you with help, hope, support, guidance, and access to national and local resources.
Phone (English): 1-800-332-1000
Phone (en español) 1-866-748-8008
Epilepsy Foundation - Seizure First Aid
Find detailed information about care and comfort seizure first aid, first aid for specific types of seizures, and how to respond when seizures don't stop.
Epilepsy Foundation - Seizure Action Plan
Download resources and learn why it is important to have a seizure action plan.
Helpful Links
Below you’ll find links to additional resources to help you along on your pregnancy journey. These resources are especially helpful for people with epilepsy.
Podcasts & Webinars
Seizing Life - Epilepsy in Women: Challenges, Concerns, and Considerations
Seizing Life® is a CURE Epilepsy podcast and videocast aiming to inspire empathy, offer helpful stories, and give hope as we search for a cure for epilepsy. Watch as host Kelly Cervantes and EPMC Dr. Elizabeth Gerard discuss impacts, challenges, and concerns specific to women living with epilepsy. From puberty to menstruation, contraception, pregnancy, and menopause, Dr. Gerard provides information and insights on managing epilepsy as a woman through all stages of life.
Websites
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of children. Explore our comprehensive resources, evidence-based guidelines, and expert insights on pediatric care. Discover the latest research, educational materials, and advocacy initiatives aimed at promoting child health. Join the AAP community and access valuable tools, training, and networking opportunities.
Empowering Epilepsy
Empowering Epilepsy is dedicated to creating a proactive, seizure-controlling, preventative respite center and community for people with epilepsy and their loved ones. Helping to change the conversation about epilepsy. Enabling people with epilepsy to take charge of their lives.
Food and Nutrition Service - Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age 5 who are found to be at nutritional risk.
Kelly Mom
Evidence-based information on breastfeeding and parenting.
Mother to Baby
MotherToBaby, a service of the non-profit Organization of Teratology Information Specialists (OTIS), is the nation’s leading authority and most trusted source of evidence-based information on the benefits or risks of medications and other exposures during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. We specialize in answering questions about the benefits/risks of exposures, such as medications, vaccines, chemicals, herbal products, substances of abuse, maternal health conditions and much more, during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
National Library of Medicine - Drugs and Lactation Database (LactMed®)
The LactMed® database contains information on drugs and other chemicals to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed. It includes information on the levels of such substances in breast milk and infant blood and the possible adverse effects in the nursing infant. Suggested therapeutic alternatives to those drugs are provided, where appropriate. All data are derived from the scientific literature and fully referenced. A peer review panel reviews the data to assure scientific validity and currency.
The North American AED (Antiepileptic Drug) Pregnancy Registry
The North American AED (Antiepileptic Drug) Pregnancy Registry is the first hospital-based registry established to determine the safety of seizure medications during pregnancy.
Upstream.org - What Are My Birth Control Options?
The best birth control is the one that works best for you. Filter by side-effects, benefits or bleeding changes to find the method that suits you.
Women's Health and Pregnancy
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) website is designed to help you learn about women's health, in a straightforward, easy-to-understand way. You can bring the information you learn here to your conversations with your ob-gyn – and become an empowered, active decision-maker in your own health care.
Australian Pregnancy Register (APR)
The Australian Pregnancy Register (APR) is an independent, observational register, collecting information about pregnant women with epilepsy, treated and untreated, to assist in determining which anti-epileptic medications (AEDs) are safest for the baby while protecting the mother from seizures.
International Registry of Antiepileptic Drugs and Pregnancy (EURAP)
EURAP is a prospective observational study of pregnancies with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). It was launched in Europe in 1999 by a consortium of independent research groups and later extended to several other nations worldwide. The aim was to collect data on the risk of antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy and share it in an international registry.
UK Epilepsy and Pregnancy
The UK Epilepsy and Pregnancy Register. This was set up in 1996 to collect information about the epilepsy medication that women take during pregnancy and the health of their babies. It also gives advice about epilepsy medication(s) taken during pregnancy.