Lactnetters,
I had an interesting situation the other day. I was confrounted by a
mother who had weaned her 1yo baby (on the baby's birthday) and felt
terrible about it. The baby kept grabbing at her top and was very
unsettled. She turned to me for emotional support because her family and
friends all thought that she was just having trouble letting her baby
"grow up". I suppose she should have known better than to turn to *me*
for such support! ;-^
After much discussion, I pointed out to her that her reasons for weaning
where her husband, family and friend's opinions. Where was she, and more
importantly, her baby, in this? She admitted there was nothing in it for
either of them, and announced her intention to put the baby back to the
breast (yahay!)
Then came the problem. She admitted to me that some days before, she had
smoked a joint. She had looked up cannabis in Tom Hales and phoned a
helpline (unspecified, but might have been LLL), and their conclusion
was that cannabis was strongly contraindicated for nursing mothers, and
the chemical, THC would be present in her milk for many weeks.
Consequently, she was terrified to breastfeed her baby again. I didn't
know what to say, but felt instinctively that one joint surely couldn't
outweigh the risks of weaning an allergic, underweight 1yo?
Anyway, she made the decision on her own to risk it, and has resumed
nursing, after a 3 day break. She says her baby was so thrilled, she
waved and grinned the whole time she nursed. But, the mother is still
anxious about the risk of the THC in her bloodstream, particularly as
she has a Ped appointment and some bloodtests coming up (due to her
baby's growth).
After all this, I feel uncomfortable about the kind of advice that is
given out, regarding illicit drugs and breastfeeding. I have tried
putting into words what I mean, but I think the story above illustrates
it better. The advice this mother received seemed to "err on the side of
caution", but only if you assume that weaning is without risks. What do
you all think?
--
Anna H. Breastfeeding advocate and writer.
http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna/
***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
