hello. i am in the same boat as you. my husb and i plan on having bubbalahs soon and i am weighing the risks and benefits of weaning of off medications. the bottom line is, any literature that comes with your medications plus anything on
Effexor's website will indicate that it is not advised in pregnant and especially breastfeeding women. Some drugs do not permeate the placenta and cross into the fetal blood supply whereas whenever you breastfeed, anything from your bod goes right to the baby (assuming you will plan on breastfeeding.)
its really good that you are planning ahead like this. the best thing to do would be to talk to your doc about the pros and cons of staying with your meds through your pregnancy. i too have heard of the effexor withdrawals and they are notoriously bad. in the mental health clinic i work at, usually women will taper off of their medications several months before they plan to conceive so that they are "clean" during their conception. this also gives them time to adjust their bodies to being off of meds. plus, you will need to adjust not only to being off of meds, but the hormonal changes that will occur in your pregnant body. my husband and i had a "whoops" pregnancy earlier this year and i decided to go off of my lex (cold turkey) but with the added stress of pregnancy hormones which was a physical and mental nightmare. unfortunately, i lost the pregnancy (not due to the meds) and went back on.
i think what most doctors will tell you is that you need to decide if you can be off of your meds "safely" while pregnant. that is, if you will be suicidal/homicidal if you are off of them, then you should probably stay on them. most docs are hesitant to prescribe meds to a pregnant woman so if you can manage without your meds, it would most likely be better for your baby's health as medications affect fetuses differently during your different trimesters depending on what is developing at that time.
you may also want to see if you can switch to a different antidepressant that has been tested on pregnant women and may be safer. that might take the edge off of your withdrawals while giving you a safer option.
i do know for sure that medications like effexor are not advised while breastfeeding so some of our patients have resumed meds after breastfeeding for a month or so so that the baby can at least get the most colostrum (the good stuff) from the boob and then switch to regular infant formula. it also helped them with the postpartum depression that seems to hit women harder who were already depressed.
anyway, keep us posted as i know i am in your same position. i am going to titrate down prior to us conceiving and see how it goes.
Can you be pregnant & take Effexor? 
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