I have always read that after 5 half lives most of the drug is out of
the system. My question is: What determines the half life of a
medication? What characteristics of the drug? Does the mother have any
influence on the half life? Is there a range of half life? Can the
mother reduce the half life by any methods eg sitting in a sauna and
sweating?

I know of someone who needed a Technitium 99 scan and thoroughly
reasearched the whole procedure. She was told to pump and dump for I
think 24 hours, but after talking to many people, including an
aquaintence who had done research on this, nursed right up to the
procedure and as soon as her daughter wanted to afterwards. The
aquaintence had said you can decrease the half life by speeding up the
excretion rate from your body eg sauna and/or sweating. All she said to
the many inquiries as to whether she had stored breastmilk was
"Everything's been taken care of".

Donna Hansen
Burnaby, British Columbia