Breastfeeding and anti depressants??

[wheezie]

What experience does anybody have on taking anti depressants whilst still breastfeeding. Looked on the internet, all the websites where women did it seem to be american. Only thing i feel so determined and strongly about, really dont want to stop feeding my baby, only thing i actually dont feel a failure in and all that connects me, yet am falling apart. Feel like i shd be happy, nice house, 2 beautiful kids, loving partner etc etc. Hence scared to tell anyone, just so exhausted and want to spend my life in bed. feel like i shd just pull myself together and get on with it like millions of other women round the world.

I took ADs from when I was 12 weeks pregnant until a few months ago and breastfed DD until she was 10 months (she's 20 months now).

I took sertraline, which really helped me. And DD is fine as well .

I breastfeed while on ads. I was (am) taking Fluxotine 60mg and was advised not to bf for 2 hours after taking them. In the end I bf first thing in morning, last thing at end of day and during night. The rest of the time i bottle fed so dd still got the benefit of breat milk and plus I didn't feel so tired (which is very important when feeling down and looking after dd).

I used to take my ADs last thing before I went to sleep - this probably did mean that when I was breastfeeding it was a while until I breastfed after taking them (but as I was taking them from 12 weeks pregnant I am sure that some of it got into DD anyway).

I wasn't ever told specifically not to breastfeed her for an amount of time after taking the ADs.

tri-cyclic ad's don't cross

Did the anti depressants help? have taken so many in the past and still felt so low. Prozac made me even more exhausted, Seroxat didnt seem to do anyhting and Lustral made me unable to sleep. I know i am being so defeatist here and really negative. i dont want to feel anymnore tired. last week i took oral steroids for mt skin at recommendation of dermotologist. Had to stop as my baby was so affected and it seemed like he was on speed.

I think the baby is actually exposed more to the drug during pregnancy and very little comes through in the breast milk. My psychiatrist also said that there are no known long term effects (or short term, i think) on the baby - though no research trials have been carried out, they learnt this from previous mothers' experience. My GP referred me to the mother & baby psychiatric unit at my local hospital. I found being able to talk and have my progress montitored by a specialist has helped no end. Is there anything like this in your area? You're not being defeatist or negative. You have a medical condition that needs treatment, and it is treatable. Does your dh know how you are feeling? Could he help alittle more (or any friends & family) to take some of the pressure off? I've found that ads have helped but i know i've still got along way to go. Sometimes, when I have really hard days I just think bugger to the housework etc, as long as dd & dogs are looked after I don't have to do anything else. Even if the only extra thing that I do is put a load in the washing machine I feel really good as I know the important stuff is looked after and if I've managed something extra which is something to be proud of. I hope my rambling helps. BIG HUG!

I took Dothiepin, a tricyclic, throughout pregnancy and it was OK to take while breastfeeding too.

I'm 37 weeks pog and have just been diagnosed fluoxetine for AND.....only 20mg once a day....and its' expected that I'll continue taking it for some months after the baby is born. Having read what I can about it online, I'm not worried about any gestational developmental effects on the baby at this stage of pregnancy, but I am worried about BF. As far as I understand fluoxetine does get into BM, but at 10-20% the mums dose. My main worry is that there doesn't seem to be any long term studies on the effect of flouxetine on BF babies development/life long learning abilities.

I'm breastfeeding my 6 month old DS and taking lofepramine (a tricyclic). Like McBeasty, I was referred to a psychiatrist who worked in the mother and baby unit of our local psychiatric hospital. This was mainly because the GP admitted he didn't really know what to advise me (he's very nice and pro-BF unlike some though!)

There are quite a few ADs you can take. There are obviously no proper clinical trials on breastfeeding women as it wouldn't be ethical, so quite a few doctors will prescribe the older tricyclic drugs rather than SSRIs as there's more data on them because they've been about for longer.

I sympathise with how you're feeling having tried lots of different ADs too - this is my third major episode of depression and my fourth change of meds! I'm getting better again now though. Hope you feel better soon.

This is a good summary about breastfeeding and medication...

www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/supporterline/antidepressants.php

(sorry, you'll have to copy and paste it, I seem to have done something to my keyboard config so I can't do backslashes for the link!)

I take sertraline, which has done absolute wonders for me. I take it in the evening, but as DS2 still feeds 2hrly, there is no real gap between the tablet and feeds. I think this is one of the most-recommended ad's for use when bfing, but don't know much about it.

On advice of my GP, psychiatrist an CPN took sertraline whilst pg and breastfeeding - no bother.

Please ignore the last poster - seems to be a nut to me, I have reported to MN towers