The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH) 2007 stated that:
“SUDEP is known to be more common in patients who do not take prescribed anticonvulsants and many women are reluctant to take anticonvulsants when pregnant or breast-feeding for fear of harming their babies”.
Case study from CEMACH;-
A woman died from SUDEP in mid-pregnancy. She had had epilepsy with tonic/clonic seizures for many years but had intolerable side effects from anticonvulsants which did not seem to affect seizure frequency. Because of this she had not taken any anticonvulsants for a year and was reluctant to try newer ones because she was concerned about teratogenicity.
Although she attended the antenatal clinic at her GP’s surgery very early in pregnancy she was not able to be fully “booked” until four weeks later because the midwives were too busy. Although she was referred to a neurologist she did not attend her appointment because she did not receive the appointment letter. As she was having regular fits she was referred again to the neurologist but, the repeat appointment was delayed by more than one month and she died before she could attend.
