http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/13054.html#

Do Epidurals Affect Breastfeeding?
Posted on : 2006-12-11 | Author : Alan Cross
News Category : Health


Mothers –to- be who may be considering having epidurals in order to relieve
labor pains may decide to rethink their choices after reading the report
published in the International Breastfeeding Journal.

It details the findings of a recent study by researchers in Sydney. They
studied 1280 women who had children between March and October in 1997. Of
these women 416 had epidurals and 172 of those having the pain-killing
medication also had Caesarean sections.

The team found that mothers who decide to have an epidural in order to
relieve labor pains have a greater chance of problems in the first week
after birth and may be more likely to stop breastfeeding earlier than usual.

They are also now of the opinion that the chemicals, bupivacaine and
fentanyl, which is an opioid, present in epidurals may have an adverse
affect on the unborn babies. They suggest that some of the drugs used enter
the bloodstream and cross into the placenta to reach the fetus. They can
affect the unborn infants' brains and make them over sleepy and less
disposed towards breast-feeding.

Dr Siranda Torvaldsen, leader of the research team, remarked that there was
a growing body of evidence to show that “the fentanyl component of epidurals
may be associated with sleepy infants and difficulty in establishing
breastfeeding.”

Dr Torvaldsen stated that some newborn babies had lost their "sucking
co-ordination" if the mother had an intra-muscular injection of the
pethidine in the last half hour of a normal delivery.
Ninety three per cent of the women who were studied breastfed their babies
in the first week. But 75% of those who had no analgesia was still
breast-feeding at six months whereas only 53% of those who had received
epidurals or pethidine were.>>

The article continues at the website.









Heather "Sam" Doak
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