Hello Pamela!

Wow.  I am also flabbergasted.  If this mother would like to defend  
her decision to take vitamin D during her pregnancy to this doctor,  
perhaps she could use this link to the work of Dr. Carol Wagner and  
Dr. Bruce Hollis on vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy:
http://www.mjn.com/professional/pdf/VitDRequirements.pdf

I was actually surprised but so happy to see this complete  
presentation online -- a similar presentation by Dr. Wagner in July of  
2009 sparked my interest in learning as much about this topic as I  
could.  Her research is ongoing and, in my opinion, quite good, and  
she has been very generous in sharing her findings with the  
breastfeeding education community.

As for breastfeeding while pregnant: first, my anecdotal contribution  
-- my first daughter was 13 months old when I became pregnant (yes, on  
purpose, seemed like a good idea at the time!) with my son.  I  
breastfed her throughout my pregnancy and for nearly 2 years beyond.   
Myt son was born a day before 40 weeks at over 9 pounds.  That  
pregnancy was incredibly stressful for me for other reasons, so while  
I wouldn't call that pregnancy "normal," my son is now 6 years old and  
is sensitive, intelligent, and without noticeable defect.

I became pregnant with my third child (a girl) when my son was about  
30 months old (yes, on purpose, again it seemed like a good idea!).  I  
breastfed my son throughout that pregnancy and was also able to take  
much better care of myself that go-round.  She was born 4 days before  
40 weeks at just over 8 pounds.  She's 3 now and is a ray of  
sunshine!  She was born with a congenital midline nasal dermoid cyst  
-- it occurs in 1/30,000 babies and is the result of the foramen cecum  
(a hole in the skull at the glabella/between the eyebrows) not closing  
properly at around 6 weeks' gestation.  Because many mothers don't  
even know they're pregnant at that time, and only 1/30,000 babies is  
born with this defect, I cannot attribute it to having breastfed while  
pregnant, and *certainly* not to estrogen levels!!

Since we like to work in facts and not anecdotes, I would refer this  
mother to an outstanding resource, a book entitled "Adventures in  
Tandem Nursing" by Hillary Flower.  I lived with that book, brought it  
to appointments, and was so thankful to have such a frank and  
affirming resource.

I'm saddened that a doctor doesn't seem to understand that the  
estrogen level rose high enough to trigger FSH/LH and ovulation so  
this woman could become pregnant, all while she was breastfeeding ...  
or that prolactin, the hormone that inhibits the estrogen in the first  
place, isn't really all that high after the early postpartum period  
(it's the prolactin RECEPTORS that are most important so that lower  
level of prolactin gets taken up and used).  There are situations  
where breastfeeding during a pregnancy is contraindicated, but not in  
an *otherwise normal* pregnancy for the reason you cited.

Diana Cassar-Uhl, IBCLC and LLLL
upstate NY

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