Herbs can often be safely given to lactating women.
However, yes, just because it is an herb, doesn't guarante that it's safe.
Herbs can pass through the bm and affect the baby. In fact a common way to
treat a bf baby with an illness is to have the mom take the herb and pass it
to the baby through the breastmilk.

It is entirely possible that most herbs will never undergo the kind of sci-
entific study that pharmecuticals undergo. This is mostly because of money.
It makes sense financially to fund studies for drugs because then you can
patent them and make lots of money. Nobody will fund such a study with herbs
because you can't patent a plant. Additionally, many "scientific" studies on
herbs are seriously flawed because they involve isolating a particular
constituent which has been deemed active. In the whole plant the potentially
harmful action of one constituent is usually balanced by another constituent.

It's important to remember that humans (and some animals even) have used herbs
to heal themselves since the beginning of time. We have a tendency to assume
that pharmecuticals are better because they're brought to us by modern
technology, but this is often not the case. Often, an herb can be used to
avoid a drug which may have the potential for more serious side affects.
Just as I know in my gut that bf is the best way to feed a baby, and I don't
need a host of scientific studies to prove this to me (although they're fun,
and helpful to convert the unconvinced) I know that herbal medicine, when
used respectfully, and knowledgably, can be safe and effective. It's
certainly helped us get this far down our evolutionary path.

I don't know if in some cases homeopathic remedies could be passed to the baby
through breastmilk. However, I personally would be more comfortable with
that then a pharmecutical passing through. Also, it's important to distinguish
between herbs and homeopathic remedies. Since herbs work by chemical action,
they could pass through the milk and have a similiar action on the baby.
Homeopathic remedies (except the low dose ones) do not work by chemical action,
so they couldn't pass on this level to the baby.

For instance, since mastitis can usually be treated homeopathically or
herbally, that would be my first line of defense. There is much less chance
of an allergic reaction than there would be to an antibiotic, you don't
have to worry about dealing with yeast/thrush in the mom or baby afterwards,
by saving the antibiotics for when they're really needed, your keeping it
so they'll be more likely to be effective and less likely to cause an allergic
reaction when you need them, etc. etc.

What do others think?
Julie Brill in Bedford, MA