As a pediatrician, I'm not often "in the right place at the right time" to
talk about epidurals [it's usually after the fact], but this is what I tell
moms
- The epidural may affect the baby's "awakeness" and their ability to
breastfeed effectively.
- That they did not get this info from their OB or Anesthesiologist because
those groups of doctors haven't used breastfeeding ability as a measure of
medication effects in their studies.
-The effects, if there are any, will depend on what drug is used in the
epidural, how long they have it, iv fluids, etc.
-That "you're the one having the baby and you've got to do what you've got
to do" and whatever you decide is fine, but if you do have an epidural,
you're going to have to give your baby the "benefit of the doubt" and you
may need to put in some extra effort to get breastfeeding off to a good
start - and not feel that the baby isn't interested in breastfeeding because
it's more sleepy or can't get the hang of it.

....and if I still have a listening audience by this time, I add:
-My favorite babies to have breastfeed are my "parking lot" babies - the
healthy, full term babies that are almost born in the parking lot. They are
wide awake and breastfeed like champs.
- Did you know that an unmedicated baby, dried and placed on his mother's
belly after birth can wriggle his way up her chest, find the nipple and
latch on by himself?

Gail S. Hertz, MD, IBCLC
[log in to unmask]

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html