Long time with no post, but I have kept up with this group for years because of how much I value the wealth of knowledge here.
I work in the hospital setting and usually don't have a curve ball thrown at me like the one that hit me yesterday at work. It has left me really doubting myself after more then 20 years of experience.
One of our postpartum mom/baby couplets was discharged and had been breastfeeding exclusively, once home she starts to have pain and run a fever. She ends up being readmitted late in the evening the same day she had been discharged (at this point a 2 day vaginal delivery). They start her on IV antibiotics and run tests. The first test to show something is her UA-thinking UTI. Later her blood cultures show a preliminary result of gram negative rods. OB thinks she has sepsis from the UTI and tells her to 'pump and dump' because she has a blood borne illness. She does this through the night. I enter the next morning, a good 16 hours post readmission and she is now afebrile and starting to feel better. Here the debate starts; is it safe for her to resume breastfeeding/saving her expressed milk?
I am having a busy day with patient needs and spend what time I can trying to look this up and couldn't find anything specific.
I did print for her the information from the CDC about when breastfeeding is not recommended, even temporarily. meantime she calls her peds office and someone there says she can safely giver her milk or breastfeed and she decides to do so.
My initial reaction was also to recommend giving her milk/resume breastfeeding, but am still feeling out of sorts over the whole thing.
I also have to say my initial reaction was outright anger at the OB - let me explain - 99.9% of the time they would claim the baby is 'not their concern-not their patient' ... so why now speak so boldly about a patient that really is not theirs?

Thanks in Advance for Any Thoughts,
Jodie (Central Maryland USA)

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