As of March 17, 2018 it has now been 14 years since Manie was born with a rare heart defect & was rushed into emergency heart surgery when only 8 days old. Then two years ago learned he also has a rare lung defect. And on September 6, 2016 went in for additional surgery. Thus the Manie Foundation was born.
Manie Edgington was born in the heartland of America needing open heart surgery in order to save his life. This was the result of Julie’s extremely short term use of the antidepressant Paxil, a drug she discontinued only a few weeks after his conception when she realized she was pregnant. Sadly for Manie & his mother that was already weeks too late.
This same type of surgery was necessary for two baby boys in my own small Utah neighborhood where the families attended church with me. One of those had also been exposed to Paxil throughout his mother’s pregnancy and the other was exposed to the Prozac residue his mother had taken just before her pregnancy.
With the extremely high rate of use of antidepressants among women of childbearing age this information needs to get out to the public far, far more than what it is now!! How many babies is this happening to that we never hear about, that the mothers never even learn about? I know the stories of the two babies in my neighborhood were never made public in any way whatsoever. The reason for that was with the first one because the mother worked for a pharmacy and she remained on the drug, so she never wanted to take her son’s case to court. The other mother tried to file a case for her son, but as happens so often in going against a drug company with tons of money in their coffers set aside fight such cases, she could not find an attorney who would take her baby’s case pro bono and she did not have the funds to file it herself.
And then in one other case in my small neighborhood, my next door neighbor’s sister, who had been on Prozac for 7 years before weaning off, gave birth to a baby one and a half years after discontinuing her use of Prozac. When the baby was 3 weeks old it was passing more blood than stool. Both her family physician and pediatrician confirmed our fears that it was the Prozac residue in her mother’s milk that was eating away the baby’s intestinal lining. Further confirmation of that came as a mother who had never taken these drugs donated her mother’s milk so that the baby could receive her milk mixed half in half with the mother’s milk which stopped the baby’s intestinal bleeding.
And in two other cases I am aware of another neighbor on Prozac during her pregnancy gave birth to a baby boy with Autism. As he was never given vaccines it was always clear go the parents that Prozac had produced the Autism in their son which because they have chosen for years now to treat with diet & herbs is doing better & better.
The other case involved blood sugar issues. Hypoglycemia was the first birth defect noticed in babies born to mothers who had taken antidepressants. Of course early hypoglycemia would indicate that there is also early diabetes in these babies. A mother on antidepressants was asked to give a talk at church about the safety of antidepressants during pregnancy! That mother went on to assure everyone that her baby was just fine and that using antidepressants during pregnancy was a safe thing to do since she was still on her anti-depressants. What she did not disclose during her presentation was the fact that her baby then only one and a half years old was already suffering such severe diabetes that she was insulin-dependent! Of course anyone knows that means her life will be cut short because of the impact of diabetes at such an early age.
Are these the only problems in children stemming from their mothers use of antidepressants ? Far from it ! These are only some of the life threatening and very serious adverse effects that can come for my mother’s use of antidepressants before and during pregnancy. Much more is coming out now about the depression and anxiety and learning difficulties these children have due to the exposure to these drugs in the womb.
Young women of childbearing age who want families need to to be warned of the many possibilities of the negative impact of the use of an antidepressant upon their offspring instead of being lied to about these drugs being perfectly safe in pregnancy. If they want families they need to know how their use of these drugs can in fact produce life threatening situations for their children and long_term effects which can show up years later.
And this post wood not be complete without including very first comment posted on Facebook in response to this from a mother who was assured over and over again that her medication was safe during pregnancy thus affecting many of her children before one of them did not survive….
“I am sick of hearing “I was on antidepressants and my baby was fine.” Everyone assumes that exposure only causes physical defects.
“As a mom with a PPHN baby, a heart defect baby and one who died, plus 3 other living guys exposed (thank you lying medical comminity), you may not notice the impact right away. My 16 year old had a non eventful birth and was a normally healthy baby who was breastfed while I was still on antidepressants, as well as my 11 year old, and both have issues with behaviour and maturing at the same rate as others plus impulse control issues. You know, all the symptoms that get kids medicated for things like ADHD?
“I wonder how many babies born fine grow up to be struggling with problems because their brain was affected while in the womb? You can’t see the brain. There is so much more going on than we know.
“Unless you are of the belief that a mom taking street drugs as opposed to the mom on prescription drugs; your body knows the difference right?”
THE MANIE FOUNDATION
http://www.maniefoundation.org
We love you Manie! I still have the picture I had of you on my desk in Iowa with you in your karate uniform. I hope with this last surgery it did not impair your ability to do your karate in any way.