I have strong feelings about this topic as I have done home dialysis with a
close family member (my dear father) and know first hand the heartache and
potentially fatal outcome of kidney disease.  Having to live tied to a
dialysis machine 6 nights a week or going to a dialysis center for 5-6 hrs
3-4 times a week, eating a restrictive diet, having to measure every swallow
of liquids because there is no urine output and you can't exceed your daily
amount--is not the way to live for anybody.

Laurie, and all others, when counseling a mother with kidney disease about
her drugs and breastfeeding, please realize this is not a simple infection,
or a self limiting disease. Most kidney diseases are very serious.   Also she
may be asymptomatic for a long time.  That does not mean she can delay
treatment.  The body works and works to compensate for decreased function,
and sometimes there are not many symptoms until the body just can't
compensate anymore.  My fathers kidney function went from acceptable to no
function at all over a 2 month period.  There are many types of kidney
disease, but since the kidney does not regenerate like the liver can, the
main help our medical system can offer is management, dietary and drugs to
slow the degeneration of the kidney from whatever is damaging it.  This is
very important.

I am a firm, devout, passionate believer in breastfeeding.  BUT, I believe
even more that this baby deserves it's mother and to have her there while
he/she is growing up.  Our goal is not breastfeeding = the ultimate good and
must be preserved at all costs, but instead that we want a healthy baby and a
happy mother and family, and by the way breastfeeding is by far the best way
to achieve tha whenever possible.

Please any of you who are involved with mothers with serious conditions, find
out more about their medical conditions before you advise they even think
about delaying treatment or suggesting she change doctors.  Delaying needed
treatment even a few months could shorten her kidney function and perhaps her
life by years.  I did work recently with a mother with kidney disease that
WAS able to breastfeed totally.  All we needed to do was research her meds
and get that info to the nephrologist, AND get him talking to the
pediatrician.
This is a condition that requires a good specialist and good doctors are not
a dime a dozen.  It is not like changing your family doctor.  I know you know
breastfeeding, but when situations like this come up you must do a lot of
homework before you advise the mother, especially to delay treatment.

Jane Bradshaw RN, BSN, IBCLC (10 year recert--Hurrah!)
Lynchburg, VA