In reply to Deslette from New York about Antiphospholipid syndrome, I
have it.  I suppose there are varying degrees of it.  It is like a low
level lupus characterized by odd blood clots, multiple miscarriage.  This
mainly affected my life while trying to become pregnant and being an
infertility patient.  A close friend of mine who happens to be a midwife
attended a conference in Utah and learned about it there.  The MD who
spoke said diagnosis is made by history more than anything else.  After a
couple of infertility work ups the plan for me was to be on steroids
should I become pregnant again, and lo and behold it worked!  My
infertility docs were not very familiar with this syndrome either.
I carried my first daughter to 35 weeks, and a second to 38 weeks.  Some
women take an aspirin or baby aspirin every day when they are pregnant,
or heparin.  Prednisone worked for me.  There was never any question
about breastfeeding, I just did it, my MD or midwife never even brought
it up and there were no problems.  My daughters are now 8 and 6 and our
precious adopted son is 9, there are 8 months between the two oldest
children.  Not bad for an infertility patient!!
     I have had two clots to a kidney, the first one at age 22, and the
second at age 31.  I try to remember to take an aspirin every day, and
know I am not a candidate for oral contraceptives. Otherwise it is a
small thing, a strange but mild auto-immune disorder.
     Hope this helps.
     Warm regards to all on Lactnet,

Susan Potts RN IBCLC
St. Paul, MN