This is just personal and antecdotal, but I had severe PPD after my first baby and did not go on antidepressants (wish I had), had no PPD with my second baby but then with the third pregnancy I had major depression that started in my 28th week. I went on Zoloft and it made a world of difference. My baby is now 6 months old, I am still taking the Zoloft (50mg) once a day. When I have forgotten to take it (and I do, my husband is deployed to the Gulf and I have 3 kids, LLL, Doula, etc) for more than just a few days, I notice a definite dip in my mood and anxiety levels. For the record, my third baby was born at a freestanding birth center here in San Diego. It was a water birth after 48+ hours of back labor. He came out fine, Apgars of 9/10, started nursing immediately and I have not noticed any symptoms indicative of the Zoloft usage. Also, I attended Tom Hale's session at the LLLI Conference in San Francisco, on Medications and Mothers Milk. He spent a good deal of time speaking about Antidepressants. Long story short-antidepressants, especially Zoloft, have been well studied in breastfeeding mothers and the amount that passes through to the milk is nearly undetectable. That certainly eased my mind, as I may be on Zoloft for the foreseeable future. I guess I am saying that antidepressants have their place, and I feel that they have been well studied. I would rather be on antidepressants and be able to function and interact with my baby, than to not be on them and be contemplating suicide--or at the very least, not feeding myself, my kids, staying in bed all day and not interacting with my baby. We have plenty of studies showing what happens to babies whose mothers did not interact with them. I don't want that for my baby. Robyn Roche-Paull LLLL San Diego ****************** Mama to Morgan (7), Siobhan (4), and Tiernan (6 months old) ******************************************** Who can say what flows through the breast along with the nutrients and antibodies? Perhaps our children grow strong on memory, spirit, dream and story... ******************************************** *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html