Continuing drug therapy while breastfeeding. Part 1. Common misconceptions of patients.

QUESTION: Some of my patients who need specific drugs during the postpartum period are hesitant to breastfeed even when I tell them that, according to available evidence, these drugs are safe. Am I right about this and how should I advise my patients? ANSWER: Recent studies reveal that women receiving chronic therapy tend to initiate breastfeeding much less often than mothers in the general population and, if they do initiate, discontinue it much earlier. While reassuring counseling is generally correlated with continuation of breastfeeding, women receiving chronic medications still discontinue breastfeeding earlier. Stressing the clear benefits of breastfeeding and the lack of apparent risk of drugs shown to be safe should be coupled with repeated reassurance to mothers during close follow up of their babies.