What wonderful efforts your state association has made, and a great return on the investment, it seems! I will bring this up at my next LLL chapter meeting. I have so many mothers who call with weaning concerns due to medication that seem to be unwarranted. Granted, I am not a physician, but if a mother needs amedication on a short-term basis and has an older baby, and the med is listed as an L2, I have no understanding as to why weaning is reccomended!
I figure that if I get a few inquiries each months from mothers (many of whom are my friends and contacts through our local attachment parenting group) there are probably many more who simply wean without question when their MDs are unsure. I have a close personal friend who needed (very necessary) outpatient surgery. Her doctor reccomended that she pump and dunp fpr 24 hours after surgery. Her baby was 6 months old at the time, and was hospitalized for RSV (mama was in-hospital with the baby), and had never taken a bottle. Had her best friend not been a La Leche League Leader, she may have taken the MD's reccomendations. Since her infant was alreay immunocompromised (sp? it's late here!) I can only immagine the effect that would have on the baby. It makes me both sad and angry that the go-to response is to wean temporalilly when ABM has so many ill-effects on an infant, and "temporarary" weaning often becomes permanent. :(
--Kellie Whitney
Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 22:05:39 -0500
From: David Sulman and Anne Altshuler
Subject: Meds and Mothers' Milk in MD offices
Our state association of Lactation Consultants purchased enough copies of
"Medications and Mothers' Milk" so that each paid member could receive one
to give to a person/location that would put it to good use in our local
community. (It was assumed that each LC already had one of her own.) I
first thought of giving one to the university medical library (used by
medical and nursing school students as well as the clinic and hospital
staff). When I spoke to the acquisitions librarian about the book, she
decided it sounded so worth while that they should purchase it on their own.
I also learned at this time that the poison control hotline for the state
already had a copy and the RNs who answered calls used it extensively as a
resource. I ended up checking with our local WIC director, and she
suggested a busy city health clinic with limited financial resources that
was making real efforts to be supportive of breastfeeding. They were very
grateful to receive the book. When a new edition was available two years
later, and we again received copies to give away, I gave it to the same
clinic. They sent me a nice thank you note, explaining that one of their
pediatricians was going to Haiti to do some volunteer work and was taking
their older edition to donate to the clinic there. I'm hopeful that we will
be able to continue this program with the new 2006 edition of "Medications
and Mothers' Milk." And what we hope is that as more clinics/doctors/nurses
use the book, they will spread the world and make it a point to keep the
most current edition on hand.
It is also helpful to share the access information to Tom Hale's
"Medications and More" free email newsletter. It has timely information and
also lists current articles that pertain to breastfeeding issues. For
example, in December it frequently talks about alcohol consumption and
breastfeeding. The April 2006 issue spoke about insect repellants and
breastfeeding. Also an article by Peter Hartman on oxytocin and milk
letdown. You can view the April edition at
http://www.ibreastfeeding.com/Newsletter%20Vol.%209.pdf
At the very bottom there is a place to click on to sign up.
Anne Altshuler, RN, MS, IBCLC and LLLL
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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