This is a very interesting point Pam. Women who exclusively breastfeed are somewhat protected from anaemia in the year after birth because the amount of iron lost via breastfeeding is less than the amount lost via menstruation (and this is one reason why the rules applied by some blood banks excluding breastfeeding women but not formula feeding mothers in the post-partum from donating blood is stupid because the formula feeding mother is at greater risk of anaemia than the breastfeeding woman). However, if a woman continues to bleed throughout early lactation because of a medication then she is getting a double whammy of iron loss. Not a good thing!
Karleen Gribble
Australia


>  The other thing is that Depo can cause on-going bleeding.  Maybe one of the research questions should be what happens to a mother's Hb levels, and if Hb levels exert an effect on milk production - maybe that is already known?   We also need new, up to date studies with more stringent definitions of "breastfeeding" to see if babies whose mothers are on Depo, or any other POPs can achieve normal weight gain on exclusive breastfeeding.
> 
> Sorry, this just raises more questions than answers.  But Dawn is quite right -  perhaps WE are the ones who could show that this research is way overdue.
> 
> Pamela Morrison IBCLC
> Rustington, England

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