Dear Dr. Tom,
Thank you for the information.  I got this all 2nd hand--so I didn't really
know what kind of drug this was (obviously).  Now I am confused as to why
they would want to order it for nausea--respiratory depression, maybe?  I'll
have to check into it more.

I have been following the chain of postings about Paxil.  I don't know of any
breastfeeding mothers using that drug presently, but I will let you know.  We
do have some doctors prescribing Prozac which makes me nervous.

I was very interested in  your comments about fentanyl.  Could you give me a
reference to share with our anesthesiologists?  Some of them use fentanyl in
epidurals--usually for redosing.  Are there any other anesthetics or opiates
that leave the plasma like fentanyl? (I hope I am not showing more ignorance
here).

I am also interested in what effects might be seen in newborns with long
pitocin inductions--is sedation a side effect  of this also?  In Murray's
study from 1981 the oxytocin-epidural babies were seen to rarely wake for
feedings.   Do you agree with the statement that "it is unlikely that the
oxytocin effect  is a direct biochemical one, given that its half-life in
plasma is less than 15 minutes."

Thank you for your time
Chris Lundberg, RN, IBCLC
Indianapolis IN  where there are lots of inductions and lots of epidurals and
lots of sleepy babies--so many that we hardly know what a normal baby in an
active alert state is!  (I've had a bad week--can you tell)