The warning comes as resources for health professionals and the publicwere launched to help raise awareness of the issue by the BritishEpilepsy Association as part of its Mothers in Mind campaign. More than131,000 women with epilepsy are of childbearing age in the UK.
But Professor Pamela Crawford, consultant neurologist at York Hospital'said many women had unplanned pregnancies without realising thepotential effects from contraception or other medication.
Specialist intervention and adjustment of medication could reduce therisk of major birth defects by half, she said. But as mums-to-be hadleft epilepsy care, many were unaware.
- www.epilepsy.org.uk/campaigns.
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