Last year  I attended a symposium at the Sorbonne in Paris  about the
psychiatric hospital units in several countries in Europe where mothers are
hospitalised with their baby . There are 38 dyad beds in France ,200 in
Britain and also day hospitals. Several of those psychiatrists mentionned
that the drugs given to the mothers (neuroleptics, antidepressants..) at
normal dosage were compatible with breastfeeding . They hospitalise mothers
who suffer from postpartum psychosis( it seems that the incidence of this
disease is faily constant :  1 or 2 for 1000 births), postpartum depression
and schizophrenic women who have a baby.
 Pr Kumar who heads one of those units in South London  said that 50% of
the mothers hospitalised in his unit breastfed.   Of course in many
instances the mothers can't be left with their baby unattended as this can
get very dangerous. The mean duration of hospitalisation is 40 days, so you
can see it takes a lot of personnel but it seems to be really worth it as
in  the mental illnesses that appear AFTER chilbirth the mothers get well
eventually and it is very important to preserve the bond between mother and
baby. The psychatrists who talked and were from France, Belgium, Spain and
England all agreed on the the possibility to let the mother breastfeed if
she wanted to.

In the notes I have picked up to write this I see the address of the Marce
Society, International Society for Psychaitric Disorders of Childbearing
which is based in England . But the person in charge is Canadian : Dr
Susanne Steinberg, St Mary's Hospital , Montreal.
the email is [log in to unmask]

I hope this helps.

Gisele Laviolle LLLL, IBCLC ina suburb of Paris France