Hi, Pauline: Boy, my heart really goes out to this young mom. I'm assuming she has some kind of atrial arrhythmia going on? Atrial fibrillation, maybe? The trade name of sotalol is Beta-pace, which is a pretty powerful anti-arrhythmic. Hale lists it as an L3 (B during pregnancy). The molecular weight is 272, so probably passes pretty easily into milk, and not surprisingly, there are concerns related to bradycardia and hypotension in the baby as well as sedation. I don't know that this mom's cardiologist should go so far as to tell her the baby will drop dead within 3-5 minutes of nursing, but bradycardia in the baby is a distinct possiblity. When a patient is started on sotalol, it's done on a telemetry unit in the hospital for 3-4 days so that the patient can be continuously monitored for things like bradycardia. It's also recommended that if the doseage needs to be changed during treatment, the patient be rehospitalized, again, for continuous monitoring while the doseage is adjusted. How do I know all this? Been there, done that, myself. Fortunately my heart issues developed after I was done nursing babies, but none of this is fun. I have been on virtually all the anti-arrhythmics that are currently on the market, neccessitating several hospitalizations, the last one in the ICU for 4 days while I was put on the medication of last resort (dofetilide - trade name Tikosyn). Thank God this one works, most of the time, but it's a pretty scary drug. A nurse here at the hospital asked me why I would take such a dangerous drug. Because it works for me! The only anti-arrhythmic that appears safe for nursing is digoxin, but I'm assuming this mom has already tried this medication with no success. It's usually the 1st one they try. Good luck to all involved in this situation. Pam Hirsch, RN,BSN,CLC Clinical Lead, Lactation Services Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital Barrington, IL USA *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html