Look, nothing is impossible.  Of course, any disease can have
complications, rarely fatal ones.  Even a cold can have complications
which are fatal.  But when these are so rare you have to go back to
the thirties to find a death from rubella, I vote for continuing to
give the baby breastmilk.  I should point out the rubella is also
particularly difficult to diagnose, and many rashes which were
considered rubella, actually were something else.   The baby will be
immunized and will be getting mother's mothers sensitized cells and
antibodies.

I would still urge the mother to continue.

With regard to Dr. Hale's comment about the propranalol, quite right.
There are occasional side effects even when in theory there shouldn't
be, because different people handle drugs differently, both mothers
and babies.  Nothing is impossible.  Drugs which are approved for use
in children have caused deaths (e.g. bactrim, digoxin).  This does not
appear to stay the hand of physicians, except when breastfeeding is
involved.

There are no guarantees in life. What if that little premature got
septic and died?  There is a recent study which showed premature
babies getting their mother's milk were much less likely to get septic
(the article is: E.-Mohandes, Picard MB, Simmens SJ, Keiser JF. Use of
human milk in the intensive care nursery decreases the incidence of
nosocomial sepsis. J Perinatol 1997;17(2):13-34)?  What about it?

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC