Some days ago Jan Barger asked:
>>I have a question for the good minds here.  Ethics plays a 
>>big part in what
>>we do as IBCLCs.  Do you think it is ethical to give a 
>>mother a way of
>>obtaining a drug without a prescription that is only 
>>available in the U.S. by
>>prescription through a compounding pharmacy?
>>I'd really like some feedback on this, because I think it 
>>may be one of those
>>gray areas that doesn't really have a good solid answer.  
>>What do y'all
>>think? 
(Sorry for the late reaction. I can't keep up reading all the digests of LN.)
Unlike others I will not get into the specific drug, but the overall question of looking for medications abroad. I live in an 3-country area (Germany, Netherlands and Belgium) and I see moms and health professionals in each of those countries. Laws about what meds are over the counter and which are to be prescibed by a doctor differ greatly in these countries. They are all 3 European countries, obeying to the same European laws. I use to explain to moms that the 3 gouvernments use different guidelines in determining wether a drug is to be free or should be prescribed or is not to be sold/used at all. So that if they would live just a couple of kilometers further east or west, they wouldn't have any trouble getting what they want. I leave it up to them to decide to go and get it or not. I do not take the dicision, but just explain the situation, explain why a certain medication could be benificial, that it is used and published about in for example the USA, that it is easily available in this or that of the surrounding countries and to talk it over with there physician if they want to.

Warmly,

Gonneke van Veldhuizen, IBCLC, LLLL, MOM