Advice re anti depressants and breast feeding

[MrsAlwaysRight]

I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice or point me in the direction of a good source of information...

My lovely friend has a 1 month old baby and is struggling with her depression on her lowered dose of Prozac. She is worried that she won't be able to cope when her DH goes back to work in a few weeks. She has been told that if they up her dosage she won't be able to continue breast feeding which she desperately wants to do. Does anyone have personal experience of taking anti depressants or knowledge relating to this? Are there any other medications that might be an option for her?

She is going to speak to her Dr again but I want to be able to offer her support as well.

TIA

Your poor friend - depression and poor advice from the doctor....of course she has options for this, and she can discuss them with her doctor.

www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/drugs-in-breastmilk-information-and-factsheets.html

toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT

Thanks for those will pass them on to her

In addition to the links Tiktok posted :-

The Dr who authors the textbook Medications& Mothers Milk has a web forum here on Bfing & Anti-depressants. If your friend has SKYPE she can call the Infant Risk Center in the US but I would do that as a last resort in case her Drs only wanted UK references.

I'm no expert but I'm on sertraline and BFing.

Total and utter crap from the GP....ooh, I do get angry about this. She could swap to sertraline, which is same class of drug, and increase dose I think. Sertraline is considered to have the lowest transfer rates into BM of tjis class of drug, although there is less long-term data than regarding older types od antidepressants (eg tricyclics).

I know other BFing mums on sertraline too.

With my dd I took lofepramine but since then it has apparently become contraindicated for nursing mums - a bit worrying but nothing I can do about it now.

Sertraline is fine - no side effects really after the first two days, although everyone is different of course. 100mg made me feel really spaced out so I'm back on 50.

Hi there,

I researched all ad nauseum and found myself very conflicted about what to do in the same situation.

While sertraline is in the same drug class as fluoxetine (prozac), I found it to be a less effective antidepressant for me. In fact, I had a bout of depression when changing to setraline, lowering doses and eventually coming off. She may not want to change too many variables and her meds at such a crucial time for the onset of postnatal depression?

After much research and speaking with psychiatric consultants, not only didi stay on fluoxetine throughout my pregnancy but while I am now breastfeeding too. Fluoxetine has been in use for a long long time and there is limited reporting of problems. We haven't experienced any that can be attributed to the antidepressant.

On balance, I took the decision that it would be better to have a happy mum that is capable of bonding and breastfeeding her baby, than not.

Wishing your friend well, and more informed medical advice than she has already received!

Thank you so much to everyone who replied with links and information from personal experience. I will pass everything on to her. She has said she is hoping to try an alternative medication and her lovely husband is trying to sort out taking extra leave during the transition period.

Thanks again