>I am working with a client who may need to go on antidepressants.  The
doctor
>suggested that she might have to stop breastfeeding. The mother is a health
>care professional and states that breastfeeding is very important to her.
> The baby is 9 months old.  Need for the medication may not be long term.
> Her depression appears tp be related to a situational crisis

Hi Bonnie,  Based on the small info given, in my professional opinion as a
therapist I would suggest that she enlist the proper
emotional/physical/spiritual/whatever help through the crisis, rather than to
try and mask those important painful feelings with drugs.  Quite often when
drugs are used around a crisis, it merely postpones the working through and
creates more difficulties later on.  The risks of many of the drugs which may
only be needed short-term can't compete with the benefits of the long-term
benefits of long-term nursing (yes, I repeated that on purpose).

While I am most definitely not opposed to appropriate psychotropic drug
therapy, it is also often true that MDs are often a little too quick (IMHO)
to prescribe when non-chemical help may be as effective or more so, much like
the way they quickly jump to "You better try bottlefeeding instead".

This opinion is null and void if there is information that causes this
situation not to fit the basic premise!

Nancy