Hi Alicia, How exciting that you are going to discuss these issues -- (epidurals, short stay). As you noted, the literature is VERY scanty on the effect of epidurals on bf. There is an article (1992) that discusses the effect of epidurals on babies, but doesn't address bf specifically. It is by Sepkowski, and is in May, '92 issue of Neurology and Child Development or something like that. Eegads, I can't find it right now - maybe someone else has the direct reference, or I'll have it tomorrow. The important statement is that bipivucaine has been found in the cord blood, and that motor skills are delayed for up to one month. In the birthing center where there was no intervention in birth and moms went home in <24 hrs, there were no problems bf. I still see a direct correlation between interventions in birth and probs. with bf. Then couple that with early d/c and lack of good followup and you can have MAJOR problems. Many home health nurses are sent out that aren't lactation trained, and the insurance companies (that employ some of them) don't want to pay for either the lactation training or hire IBCLCs to do the prn work. One insurance co in this area wanted to pay IBCLCs $35 to do home visits all over the city on a prn basis for those moms who were found to be having problems. They couldn't understand why the visit might take as much as 2 hours, and it simply wasn't cost effective for the IBCLC; particularly if she was an RN and also expected to do the entire mother-baby followup. So, they are sending out non-lactation trained nurses as just part of the routine followup and hoping for the best. Perhaps something else will transpire....