Dear Wise-ones,

Had a call from a mother today (first baby, 3250g) who had a heavy labour
and ended up having her baby delivered by vacume extraction. During the last
stages of the labour she was given a muscle relaxant to aid in the birth
(sorry not sure which one). She also gave birth in the same hospital as me,
and her baby was kept in the nursery for a night before they went
home -uhhhhhhhhhhh.
Her baby is now 72 hours and is still not feeding and is now down to 2900g
and has been given abm with finger-feeding. Mom is trying to express milk
(with a mini-electric pump) without much success and is afraid that her milk
will not come in. I asked her why she thought this and her answer was that
she thought the muscle relaxants were affecting her milk production. I told
her I did not believe that muscle relaxants would prevent her milk coming
in, but the whole birth experience with an infusion, medication and vacume
might mean that it comes in a little later (infact I suspect she'll wake up
tomorrow wondering what all the fuss was about). I also tried to explain
that it was three days ago that she had the muscle relaxants and gave birth
and that any medications would now be excreted from her system. I'm going to
see her tomorrow, but in the mean time I've advised her to stay in bed with
her baby, naked from the waist up to try and stimulate her to come to the
breast and drink.

Now my questions are do muscle relaxants effect when the milk comes in?  Can
they also effect the MER in the first hours after birth?

Sara Bernard
The Netherlands

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