Epilepsy, pregnancy, and major birth anomalies: an Italian prospective, controlled study.

We followed prospectively 97 women with epilepsy during 138 pregnancies and 88 women without-epilepsy, matched for age, during 140 pregnancies. We evaluated seizure frequency, pregnancy outcome, and presence of major congenital malformations, and correlated them with the type of epilepsy, antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) implicated, plasma AED levels during pregnancy, and maternal age. We compared the two groups regarding type and number of pregnancies; complications during gestation, labor, and delivery; prevalence of abortions (spontaneous or induced); perinatal deaths; and type and prevalence of major malformations