breastfeeding with PSD advice Please

[bex_ NZ]

hi ya, Im new to this site to..

i was told when i was 18 that i had Protein S Deficiency after my mother was put in hospital with a blood clot that was travelling to her lung.

I had a daughter at 23 who is now 7 and i was put on to a specialist. but i was put on nothing through the preggy, but after she was born i was given a injection then the next day another injection. guess it was clexane.

but now i am preggy againing and have a specialist that has put me on 100mg of clexane from when i was 10 weeks and il be on tell 12 hours before baby is born which il be induced at 38 weeks (4th July 2009), but after baby is born i go onto warlfin for 6 months after. the sad thing for me is that im unable to breast feed due to warlfin, so any advice on peoples experence would be good.

thanks

[James]

Hello Bex and welcome to our forum

See this topic... http://www.protein.org.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=2438

And this one in the FAQ section... http://www.protein.org.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=709

[orangefoot]

the sad thing for me is that im unable to breast feed due to warlfin, so any advice on peoples experence would be good.

thanks

Hi Bex

Welcome and do read the links James has posted. You absolutely CAN breastfeed whilst taking Warfarin or Coumadin.

Where are you? In the UK now most women can continue injecting for 6 weeks post partum instead of starting warfarin. Injecting isn't fun but it can be easier than adjusting warfarin dosage at a time when having lots of blood tests is not really what you want to be doing with a newborn in tow. It might be an option for you if you ask your care providers. You can also breastfeed whilst injecting.

I hope you are feeling well and not too bruised.

[bex_ NZ]

hi im in New Zealand.

i take clexane now and wel be taking warfin after the bubs is born.

i would love to feed if possible and it wont affect baby.

i would also love to hear from woman that are pregenant or have had babys with the PSD as i do get a bit scared from knowing i have this PSD and only found out cos my mother got a DVT

holloback soon

[kay]

It is strange how the advice given by hospitals differs, I am pregnant with my third child, and this time I have been told that I can't breastfeed on clexane (but I could if i was on warfarin). I was so shocked that after two children this was the first time that I was told this by the Haemotologist that I went straight to the hospital pharmacy and got them to look it up in their books, and they confirmed that I shouldn't breast feed on Clexane. Of course this could just be that not enough tests have been done to prove either way whether Cleaxane is or isn't safe for a newborn, I just have about five weeks to chose before the baby is due whether or nor I will be taking the advice this time - my haemotologist's suggestion was that I expressed for six weeks until I was back on warfarin and then switched the baby from the bottle to breast, but I really don't think that that is a practical suggestion.

[orangefoot]

I am not a doctor but I have breastfed three children whilst injecting LMWH under the care and advicee of both OBs and Haematologists.

I'm going to rant here but bear with me......

As far as I am aware the size of LMWH molecules is such that it does not cross the placenta and is therefore also too large to cross into breastmilk.

There is nothing inherently special or different about Clexane as opposed to Fragmin or Lovenox so the advice regarding breastfeeding should not be different.

When doctors give blanket advice on drugs and breastfeedingout of fear and ignorance they are forgetting that the benefits to babies and mothers to breastfeeding are not factors that can be brushed aside and regarded as irrelevant.

If it were possible for LMWH to pass into milk it would be very poorly absorbed by the baby's gut and this (in my opinion) very, very tiny risk of an anticoagulant effect is far outweighed by the very well documented disadvantages of babies who are exclusively formula fed from birth.

Kay, a hospital pharmacy is probably more worried about you suing their butt than giving good advice on breastfeeding. The World Health Organisation considers heparins and warfarin to be compatible with breastfeeding http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/55732.pdf see page 24.

Also look here and put LMWH in the search box and you will see the rationale for the compatibility with breastfeeding due to the molecular weight of Clexane.

Is you haematologist a man by chance? He obviously has no understanding of breastfeeding if he thinks that pumping for 6 weeks is an easy solution!

[colletteg]

Hi Bex

Congratulations on your pregnancy. I have no medical advice to provide but have had 2 successful pregnancies whilst taking clexane and breastfed both, 1st for 6 weeks, 2nd for 6 months. I was advised there was no reason why I should not feed whilst on clexane. I definately recommend you ask about having clexane for 6 weeks rather than warfarin. I was hospitalised at 6 weeks after my first birth and I can assure you expressing for so long is not an option. I was in for a week, unable to feed my expressed milk due to my medication, and my baby never really took to the breast after that. And trying to keep your supply adequate to feed a hungry baby is very hard work.

Good luck hun. x