Implementation of a pregnancy register included in the OFSEP cohort - Sandra Vukusic, project start: 2016

The influence of pregnancy on the course of multiple sclerosis (MS) has long been a controversial topic. After the publication of the first large prospective study of pregnancy and MS in 1998, counselling of women with MS has radically changed and many patients have been able to fulfil their desire of motherhood. However, there are still some challenges for the neurologist, who has to face old unanswered questions or new issues, regarding the use of disease modifying drugs (DMDs) in this period of life, effects on the short and long term outcome of the mother (in terms of relapses and disability) and the child, role of breast-feeding and locoregional analgesia.

The research aims to set up a national prospective pregnancy registry for patients with MS, nested within the OFSEP cohort, owing to a better knowledge of interactions between MS and pregnancy-related issues (pregnancy itself, locoregional analgesia, breastfeeding, impact of using or stopping DMDs on women/children…).

Women will be followed during pregnancy and in the year after and their children until 6 years of age. 

Interactions between pregnancy and MS course have been well characterized before the therapeutic era. Neurologists and patients are lacking information to weigh benefits and risks of DMDs used immediately before or during pregnancy, including short and long-term risks to the mother and to the child, but also after delivery. This study should help provide better answers to those questions, as well as to still controversial questions about locoregional analgesia and breastfeeding. By following these patients within the OFSEP cohort, we will also have access to a comprehensive description of MS before pregnancy but also in the long term.