Subscribe to Learning About PPHN from the People Who are Living It, Part II
Category: PPHN
In the last post I discussed a woman that I had recently befriended; a woman who was dealing on a day to day basis with the reality that her six month old son was sick with a disease known as PPHN or Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn.
I had not ever heard of PPHN before my experience with this woman; I did not know of the repercussions of PPHN and how the arteries of a newborn baby remain constricted even after birth when they would normally expand to receive blood flow; did not know that this constriction would essentially stop the blood from flowing to the lungs where it would normally receive oxygen that it would deliver to the rest of the body; and did not know that the effects of PPHN are commonly respiratory distress and organ damage, and sometimes even respiratory and organ failure.
Certainly PPHN is bad enough and anyone who has to suffer through the pain of having a sick child will certainly attest to the fact that there is quite enough on their plates already. But when I heard from my new friend the possible cause of her son’s PPHN I was devastated for her. PPHN has been connected to the taking of very common Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) that are used to treat depression and anxiety. In my friend’s case, she had been taking Paxil® before her pregnancy with no notable side effects and was told that continuing to take her medication would have no impact on her pregnancy or newborn baby.
But since the early 2000s, she has come to find out, there has been medical warnings issued regarding the connection between Paxil® use (and other SSRIs) and the incidence of PPHN. In fact, there has been shown a six-fold increase in the incidents of PPHN when the mother takes Paxil® during pregnancy.
My friend is getting through it as best she can with a lot of help and her son has been given a very positive prognosis going forward. To date, she is working with Paxil® attorneys in California to state her case in the hope of warning pregnant women everywhere about the possibility of PPHN.
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