I am a junior nursing student at the University of North Dakota and recently attended a nursing student convention where I heard a presentation on methamphetamine. This sparked my interest on the effects of meth use while breast feeding. I wanted to find more information on the topic but found a limited availability of professional resources on the topic. I also found little recent discussion in the LACTNET archives. I was only able to find three separate studies related to meth use and lactation/pregnancy and all were by the same group of authors. Slamberova, Charousova, and Pometlova (2005a) discussed relationships between methamphetamine administration during gestation and maternal behavior as demonstrated in rats. This study found a decrease in nursing and a decrease in active maternal behavior in the mothers that were given daily doses of meth during gestation. A second study by Slamberova et al (2005b) found similar findings, and also found that rats injected with methamphetamine had a decrease in the blanket position of active nursing, but increased passive nursing. The most recent study by Slamberova et al (2006) demonstrated that prenatal exposure to methamphetamine in rats impairs the development of postural motor movements during the first 3 weeks after birth, but does not affect physical or sexual maturity. These studies related to the effects methamphetamine has on maternal behaviors or the effect of prenatal exposure on infants. However, I was interested in finding out more information on the effect meth would have on the baby if transferred through the mother’s breast milk. So my question is what are your experiences with mother’s that breast feed while using meth? Have you seen any adverse effects on the babies? And also, as professionals what do you recommend to these mothers? Do the risks of breast feeding while using methamphetamine outweigh the benefits? Thanks, Erin References Slamberova, R., Charousova, P., & Pometlova, M. (2005a). Methamphetamine administration during gestation impairs maternal behavior. Developmental Psychobiology, 46(1), 57- 65. Slamberova, R., Charousova, P., & Pometlova, M. (2005b). Maternal behavior is impaired by methamphetamine administered during pre- mating, gestation and lactation. Reproductive Toxicology, 20(1), 103-110. Slamberova, R., Charousova, P., & Pometlova, M. (2006). Postnatal development of rat pups is altered by prenatal methamphetamine exposure. Progress in Neuro-Psycopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 30 (1), 82-88. *********************************************** 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(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html