Illness, antibiotics and lowered supply.

[babynumber3eek]

Hopefully someone can help reassure a very stressed me - or at least provide some information.

I was rushed into hospital in the small hours yesterday suffering from a 'serious' infection probably related to my c-section wound from 4 weeks ago. Because I was so poorly that night I didn't feed or express and only managed to do a little poor quality expressing that morning in hospital.

I am still in hospital and being given every antibiotic known to man, plus morphine and other painkillers. I was throwing up before admission so was very dehydrated and despite being given lots of fluids as my BP is consistently very low I still feel 'dry'. I have been expressing but only getting about half what I would normally express and I'm really worried that this will have a permanent impact on my milk supply. I have always had supply issues but this time I've been getting a MUCH better quantity until now. I'm desperate to successfully bf my daughter so any advice on whether antibiotics /painkillers etc could be the cause of this decline would be welcome. Sorry if it's a silly question but I am really concerned.

Thanks.

Hope you are feeling a bit better today. I have no advice, sorry, but hopefully this will bump for you

Really sorry that you haven't had any replies. How are you today?

Thank you, feeling awful still and still imprisoned in hospital. My supply is still through the floor but I guess I can only keep expressing to try to keep it going. Thanks for your response xx

Poor you, sounds like you are having a really rough start. Have you tried calling one of the Bfing Helplines? Have you got the numbers?

I'm sorry you are having such a tough time. I hope you are starting to feel better. I can't tell you any facts or give you any evidence on the impact of antibiotics/painkillers on supply. However I got lots of mastitis infections when DS was born including two hospital admissions. I did notice a pattern of poor weight gain whilst on antibiotics followed by good weight gain after a few days drug free. Obviously a totally different infection with potentially different antibiotics so I am not sure how helpful that is. But I would say if it was the antibiotics affecting my supply it wasn't permanent.

One thing that did occur to me reading your post is that it sounds like they have not let you have the baby with you. Is that right? I was just thinking that looking at your baby is supposed to help expressing. So maybe have the baby visit and try expressing. Is that possible?
I would also second trying one of the helplines or even asking if they have a feeding coordinator at the hospital. The one at mine was really helpful.
Oh another thought (sorry mind everywhere today) are you using your own pump or a hospital one. I found hospital pumps much more effective. Definitely worth enquiring about.
These are probably all things you have thought and hopefully your supply is recovering already.