Barb asked about this topic and I sent her the following info privately, but
wanted to throw this out to all of you for comments, ideas, opinions, etc:

 This is a topic close to my heart, and what got me into grad school and now
a Fellowship for my PhD (starting in the fall 99). There has not been too
much research done specifically relating bf to epidurals except some very
recent stuff. Did anyone see the article in June issue of "Birth" ???

Halpern, S. H., Levine, T., Wilson, D. B, et al. (1999). Effect of labor
analgesia on breastfeeding success. Birth 26 (2), June 1999, 83-88.

The conclusions as noted in the abstract were that "in a hospital that
strongly promotes bf, epidural labor analgesia with local anesthetics and
opioids does not impede breastfeeding success. We recommend that hospitals
that find decreased lactation success in parturients receiving epidural
analgesia reexamine their postdelivery care policies."

I have not had a chance to go over the study with a fine-toothed comb, but
this was not my premise based on observations over the past several years. I
guess I have my work cut out for me as I enter the Doctoral program, huh???

KathyIBCLC RNC in NJ

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