I suspect the reason is that while blood is tested, there is not a 100% guarantee that it is AIDS free. As was indicated, why not have the same worry about mom. When I first worked as an OB nurse 15 years ago it was at a setting where a larger than average percentage of the moms had a very low blood count. (Regarding the need for treatment, I liked the way one doc put it. She said, "Right now, you have a sufficient count to survive, although you would need to be very slow about getting up from a horizontal position. The concern is that you have no "reserve" left if anything should happen to lower the count any further.") In that setting, however, blood or packed red blood cells were rarely given as the solution as is done where I work nos. Instead, they would give Imferon shots. This is an iron product and it seemed to work well. You just had to be careful giving it because it stained everything it came in contact with and if you didn't use a Z-track method of giving the shot mom would wind up with a small "tatoo" at the injection site. I'm wondering why it doesn't seem to be used as much now. There certainly wouldn't be any concern with nursing after getting the Imferon and no concern about contamination. Does anyone know of other side effects than the staining that would explain why it seems to be out of favor? Winnie *********************************************** 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