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 *********************************************** 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