Fibromyalgia and Pregnancy

My husband and I are young, and have been married for 6 years. It's only natural that the topic of children has come up several times. Each time, my fibromyalgia has made me wonder if I could be a good parent, and has made us both pause and think twice about bringing a child into our family.

I am a stay at home housewife, and I know from experience how my own physical capabilities vary from day to day. Some days I feel like I could take on the world, and easily take care of my chores, clean the house, cook dinner, and take care of myself, my husband, and the pets we have. Other days, I can barely get out of bed to go to the bathroom, much less lift a glass or deal with taking care of someone else's needs. On those days, I think about trying to take care of a child, and I quail at the thought!

I think about what life would be like trying to pick a baby up, or change diapers, or how I get migraines if I get sleep deprived, and I stop, because it gets depressing. All of these things add up to "no way, no how."

Then there's the consideration of what being pregnant would do to my body. It is already under a huge amount of stress from the physical pain that I deal with daily. I cannot imagine what the additional stress of having a child living inside me would do to it! Add to that the fact that I would have to come off of all the medications that make life bearable, nor would I be able to take the medications that control my psychiatric illness, and I do not know that my life would be very comfortable for the duration of my pregnancy.

I have spoken to other women with fibro to get their feedback on pregnancy, and have found so many variations that it is obviously an individual issue, and therefore I cannot be certain how it will be with me, or with any woman with fibro, really, if they are concerned about how their illness might interfere with their ability to take care of their child.

All that said, it's amazing what the human body can do despite it all. I've watched a mother with fibro go through a miserable pregnancy, push past the pain of recovering from a c-section, go through sleep-deprivation and smile, because her child is the light of her life.

And it gives me hope.