Multiple Sclerosis and Having a Baby

An essential resource for anyone with MS who is considering having a child. • Firsthand advice from a woman with multiple sclerosis who has successfully borne and raised a child. • Contains information that can change the lives of many of the 250,000 women in the United States suffering from MS. • Highly readable format puts the facts at your fingertips. Diagnosed with MS at twenty-eight, author Judy Graham gave birth for the first time at the age of thirty-eight. Her new book Multiple Sclerosis and Having a Baby provides other women who are considering starting a family with the kind of genuine and useful insight that comes only from firsthand experience. Multiple Sclerosis and Having a Baby makes available not only the medical answers prospective parents need, but also the practical suggestions and sound advice that will help them meet the many unique and sometimes difficult challenges that face couples living with MS. In this highly informative and readable book, Graham asks and provides answers for nearly every question a woman with multiple sclerosis might want to consider before having a baby. With the latest medical facts and valuable data culled from hundreds of interviews with women who have multiple sclerosis and are currently raising a child, Graham straightforwardly addresses such issues as the possibility of relapse, genetic predisposition to MS, sexuality and fertility, pregnancy, postnatal care, and breastfeeding as they relate to women with MS.

Judy Graham is the editor of New Pathways, a magazine for people with MS, has worked as a TV producer for the BBC and other UK channels, and has written for many newspapers and magazines. She is the author of six books, including Managing Multiple Sclerosis Naturally and Multiple Sclerosis and Having a Baby, and lives in the United Kingdom.

Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Will I Get Worse If I Have a Baby 2 Can You Pass MS on to Your Child 3 Deciding Whether to Have a Baby 4 Can You Stop Yourself from Getting Worse? 5 Relationships, Sexuality, and Fertility 6 Pregnancy and Prenatal Care 7 Effects of Medications for MS 8 Labor and Childbirth 9 Breast-feeding 10 Getting the Help You Need 11 Fatigue, Depression, and Other Invisible Symptoms 12 Having More Children 13 Adoption 14 Single Mothers 15 Practicla Tips on Looking after a Child 16 Older Children 17 Working for a Living 18 Fathers with MS 19 Being a Parent with MS Appendix A: Multiple Sclerosis Organizations and Information Services Appendix B: Useful Books and Publications Notes Index