Looking for advice on the BF v antidepressants guilt maze

[entropygirl]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had experiences or advice on navigating the guilt maze of having pnd, wanting to continue BF but not wanting to put antidepressants into the baby?

I feel bad because I know pnd will affect my DD's development.
But I dont want to give up BF as it is the only time I get to be happy and physically close with my DD.
I am not (currently) prepared to take the pills as although they are rated safe for BF, what the research actually says is that the drug does go into breastmilk and can be detected in the childs system and that while adverse affects are rare there is some discussion about abnormal spinal development and more research is needed on long term effects.

Have previously been keeping things fairly under control with CBT etc. but having gone back to work a month ago and encountering stresses there I am now 3 days without meaningful sleep and crying all the time. Hence I am reassessing the situation....

DD is 5 mo, and due to unemployment, labour complications and pnd, DH has been DD's main carer for most of her life so far.

Any and all advice/comments will be gratefully received!

www.kellymom.com/health/meds/antidepressants-hale10-02.html

Thanks honey

Sorry I havent been on for a while. I was starting to feel sick every time I saw the thread. Still havent made progress with DH in spite of being up all of Mon night crying yelling etc (DD was remarkably tolerant of all the noise). I laughed yesterday and had proper 'how the hell can you laugh when....' guilt for about an hour afterwards. I agree about the BF - I thought for a while I was just being selfish but I think more and more that it is the only building block I have to start making a positive relationship with DD. So I guess I just have to keep going as is.

I've been on Sertraline for many many yrs (OCD and depression). My son is nearly 4 now, I bfed until he was 3, was on ads throughout pregnancy and bfeeding. No problems for him, as far as I knew. I know that a teeny tiny amount of the Sertraline goes into the baby, but if you weigh up the pros and cons (pros- baby gets benefits of breast milk, ie antibodies, nutrition, emotional security, mother is able to function and be there; cons - ingesting a teeny tiny bit of a medicine that is not known to cause harm) then, for me, anyway, it was worth taking the meds and continuing bf.
Btw I tried to come off Sertraline when I first tried to get pregnant and it was a big mistake. Had a breakdown and spent years getting better. When I finally was well enough to try again I was over 40 - I'm very lucky that I have ds at all.