Nurse said "Ew!" about me breastfeeding

[DitaVonCheese]

Had to go into hospital today for a general anaesthetic and a steroid injection (dodgy hip). I asked the nurse whether anything I was being given today could interfere with me breastfeeding and she replied "Ew! I couldn't do that."

I think she then went on to congratulate me for feeding beyond a year and was otherwise lovely and to be fair works in a hospital that is mainly full of extremely old people having hip replacements (I felt very sprightly today!) but it did seem a bit ... inappropriate from a HCP.

Slightly more worryingly, she then offered me codeine to take home.

Not really sure why I'm posting, just wanted to share.

Sorry the HCP was less than professional! BTW codeine is generally considered compatible unless you are a hypermetaboliser of codeine (i.e. you convert more codeine to morphine than normal) but as baby is 1yr and not a newborn that is less of a worry!

I'll be taking some co-codamol tonight for my sinus pain

Very unprofessional, did she apologise?

Ooh interesting TruthSweet - I asked for it immediately post-birth (because I'd seen it recommended online I think, not just for the hell of it ) but my midwife said it was incompatible with breastfeeding, I think.

I don't think she did apologise. It was said completely without malice and I just smiled politely but I was a bit ... wth?

Didn't mention I was still bfing the nearly 4 year old

I have to take codeine from time to time too. It's the only thing that works on joint pain, for me at least. I avoided it when DS was newborn but now he's 2.5 I just take it at night or avoid feeding him. And as a nurse pointed out to me, what the heck did I think pethadine was then?

There was a furore a few years ago as a baby died because it's mother was a hypermetaboliser of codeine BUT no one noticed a newborn baby getting more and more lethargic, poor weight gain, ineffective bfing etc even though the mother raised concerns and had her codeine level halved due to her own sedation from the codeine. Basically it was poor care for both mother and baby that resulted in the baby's death - the mother should have been taken off the codeine before as her baby was so compromised

There was a pretty blanket retraction of codeine's compatibility with bfing but the medical community seems to have agreed that was a bit hasty and there are situations when codeine is compatible after all. However caution should always taken when taking drugs which cause sedation (speaking as one who takes two drugs long term that can cause sedation in neonates).

Thanks, that's really interesting. We also cosleep, though these days there's more danger of DS rolling over and doing me damage :)

That's not on saying that really, is it but at least she was otherwise lovely.

LOL at feeling sprightly. I had metalwork taken out of my leg when ds2 was little, and I brought him with me to the hospital because he wouldn't take expressed milk. Because I had him with me, they didn't send me to day case admissions, but to the normal admissions instead where, like you it was full of people getting knees and hips done. I too felt very spritely!