Hi Katie,

This doesn't really surprise me.  Every time that I have heard Dr. Lawrence speak about medications and breastfeeding she has included a section about "mother's milk tea" and how it contains many herbs which can be harmful to mothers/babies, including fennel and blessed thistle.  If you read the section on herbs in her newest edition of her textbook, you will see that her knowledge of herbs is quite limited and very conservative and negative - for example, she lists kava kava as a marijuna subsitute and hallucinagen;  she lists hypoglycemia as a possibly toxic effect of fenugreek, but also says that used in moderation, it is considered to be harmless.  Although some of her information is very good, and certainly the use of herbs without knowledge of their possible side effects is to be discouraged, her list of "safe" herbs is exceedingly short and does not include many of the herbs that our moms routinely use.  Like many allopathic physicians, she is uncomfortable with herbs in general because of the lack of scientific data on their effectiveness/toxicity and the lack of oversight on their production and use.  Where herbs are concerned, she prefers to err on the side of conservatism.


Warmly,
Sharon Knorr, BSMT, ASCP, IBCLC
Newark, NY (near Rochester on Lake Ontario)
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