A couple of studies referenced on this page:
http://www.ameda.com/daily_feed/more-sleep-breastfeed

discuss that breastfeeding mothers may end up with more total sleep (of 
course, this is assuming that she's still maintaining child-care duties, 
and not turning the job over to someone else completely) and (which may 
be very relevant to this particular mother) lactation seems to produce 
more slow-wave sleep, the deepest, most restorative state.  (Certainly a 
lot of menopausal women feel they don't sleep as well as they did with 
those little babies in the house).

It does seem that the labor, birth and a hospital stay would have been 
such a disruptive sequence of events, and a strain on the body, that her 
response to that shouldn't be taken as the model of what day-to-day 
breastfeeding will be.  Even mothers who don't have her special 
circumstances find that the first few weeks are much more intense than 
the whole rest of their breastfeeding career.

The current plan of nursing freely during the day, maybe with cluster 
feeding in the evening leading up to bed, with the husband fielding the 
night feedings for six hours, with her waking for one fifteen minute 
pumping, seems like enough milk removal to establish the supply, and 
might not be a bad place to start the process.  It's helpful to convey 
that in the circadian rhythms, the hormones that tell her body to make 
milk are actually higher at night, and that the nighttime milk removals 
are important for establishing the supply.  If her condition is stable 
with the current routine, and as the baby becomes more reliably 
efficient, it may be less disruptive to keep the baby close at night, 
and do a couple feedings laying down, with the husband fielding any 
other baby care, such as diaper changes.  Many mothers do a lot of 
nursing without being fully awake.

Perhaps encouraging her to feed laying down throughout the day, since 
getting naps and rest during the day may help her deal with the night 
issues better.

Good luck to all.

Margaret Wills, IBCLC Maryland


Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2011 10:23:12 -0400 From: Pam MazzellaDiBosco 
<[log in to unmask]> Subject: mother with epilepsy and managing sleep 
Everytime I go away from Lactnet being busy with life, work, school, 
whatever...something comes along that makes me have to pop back in. Then 
I get started reading all the missed posts! I have to stop myself from 
replying so I don't start living in Lactnet where my mind is happy and 
gathering so much information. I have a mother who has epilepsy. I am 
not seeing her until today, so do not know all her meds yet. However, 
what she has been told by her neurologist is she cannot breastfeed at 
night or care for her baby at night. That the lack of sleep will cause 
seizures. Since we know breastfeeding is not the same as bottle feeding 
for the maternal sleep patterns, is it possible that she could actually 
breastfeed at night without causing the disruption in sleep that the 
doctor is worried about? Dad said mom had a siezure in the hospital due 
to lack of sleep, however, after hours of labor and lack of sleep 
related to interruptions in the hospital on top of that, the comparison 
does not seem to me to be the same thing. For now, they are focusing on 
mom breastfeeding until she goes to bed at night, letting Dad do the 
night feedings for 6 hours, mom waking to pump for 15 minutes and then 
go back to sleep. She doesn't want to breastfeed because it takes longer 
and she is afraid to be awake. Not even sure the 6 hours will be long 
enough yet, but she will know in a few days. I searched Lactnet archives 
and cannot find much about epilepsy at all, let alone how breastfeeding 
affects it, sleep, etc. Anyone with information, please share and if 
there is specific research I can share with parents, please pass along 
that also. If possible, can you send a private reply also. Thank you, 
Pam MazzellaDiBosco, IBCLC, RLC 
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