A few lessons I learned during this ordeal of treating RLS while pregnant:
1. Methodone was the best choice I could have made to treat my RLS during pregnancy. It covered my symptoms 100%.
2. As long as I stayed under 40mg/day, my baby would have little to no chance of having withdrawl issues right after birth. I was taking 20mg at the time of birth. They tested my baby every 6 hours for signs of withdrawl and he was negative every time.
3. I can remain on methodone while breastfeeding because the baby gets less than half of 1% of my dose of methodone through the breast milk.
4. And there was never a threat of being visited by children's services because of the medication. The hospital staff was very knowledgable about methodone and no one treated me poorly because of it.
5. When I was on Oxycodone during the first 6 months, it was because my RLS doc was nervous to switch to methodone. The Oxy didn't cover my symptoms very well at all. In order to convince my RLS doc to make the switch, I had her consult with my preggo docs. That was the ticket.
6. Throughout the pregnancy, I consulted with Dr. B via email. He proved to be invaluable.
I really hope this helps the next person who has to handle being pregnant while being treated for RLS. The information that is out there is so sparse that I hope a first hand account of my experience is helpful.
