# Pre-eclampsia birth, magnesium, nursing problems?



## merpk (Dec 19, 2001)

So a good friend of ours had a baby Friday (mazal tov







) and apparently had pre-eclampsia when she went in to the hospital. Surprise, surprise.







So she managed a drug-free vaginal birth anyway







but then was put on magnesium







: for the pre-eclampsia, and at the hospital the baby was given bottles







for that reason, or so she was told was the reason.

Okay.

So now she's freaked out about milk supply (not there) and should she pump (to increase what's not there) and should she give what she pumps in the bottles. And she's exhausted on top of it.

So she's calling me.










No LLL leader I, just someone who's b'H nursed a few babies.

Anyway, so I told her to nurse every second humanly possible, to stop with the bottles if she at all can (they've been giving them because of worry about no milk), and not to worry about the milk supply, because the baby's only 2 days old so it's probably still just colostrum & the milk has yet to come in. If she wants to learn to pump, okay, but better she should just keep the baby at the breast all she can. And that she should stay in bed as much as possible and just keep baby there with her and just nurse nurse nurse nurse nurse and the milk should come in any time now. And to stop with the bottles (because she keeps suggesting them). Oy.

So did I do okay?

And is the magnesium an issue? Which is what her DH is freaking out about.

(First baby, they're in general freak-out mode ... am loving the excitement, just wishing it would be easier for them to take







)


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## Avonlea (Jan 21, 2002)

Well, here is my story..I had severe pih/ pre-eclampsia and 2 doses of magnesium sulfate and still had to take meds for high bp for about 2 months afterwards... I managed to breastfeed the entire time I was in the hospital. I also ( t. g. ) to nurse my son until he was 2 and a half.

I agree that she needs to just sit and nurse, and nurse, and nurse, and get RID of those DARN bottles !!!!!!!!!!! he is 2 days old, so it should not have created too much difficulty. I do NOT understand why they felt teh need to give formula at all. If she had the baby and her bp went down with the 1st 24 hour dose of mag...?? Hmmmm.....

Get rid of the bottles, and breastfeed all the time, drink lots of fluids, and watch his diapers.

I feel so badly for her, this is rough and scary. I am so glad that she was able to have a healthy birth and is recovering. I was in the land of the hospital for 8 days, I was induced, that failed, I had an emerbgancy c section after roughly 20 hours of labour, I felt like I might die at the 4 day mark post birth. The dr. called my Mother and she took an emergancy flight in..it was awful.

After only 2 days..I betcha her milk should come in soon..does she have a pump ? If not, perhaps you could get her one or someone could loan her one and she could pump a bit as well every litle bit and then that might help the milk come in faster.








:2bfbabe:














: A prayer for a healthy breastfeeding relationship and that she never has to experiance this again...healthy normal births and healthy normal lactation from here on out !!!!!


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## Quirky (Jun 18, 2002)

I would have her call LLL and/or a board-certified lactation consultant ASAP to get help. I agree she should nurse nurse nurse but it's possible that the baby might be nipple confused and not latch on well, thus not stimulating good milk production. Far better now to get professional help than to wait until there really is a problem.

It is totally fine to breastfeed after having magnesium sulfate - it's on the AAP list of approved drugs for breastfeeding and is in lactation risk category 1 (lowest risk). http://www.kellymom.com/health/meds/...nticonvulsants


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## crazy_eights (Nov 22, 2001)

Amy - the Magnesium is NOT a problem. If the hospital is telling her differently, they are not up on their pharmacology. She needs to get the baby off of bottles and to the breast. If that is not an option, she needs to pump. If the baby was just born on Fri. and they are freaking out about no milk, they got somebody with no brains at all setting policy there. GRRRRR.


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## merpk (Dec 19, 2001)

Thanks for the replies. Spoke to her this evening, and she's doing okay, but is very ... nervous. The nursing is better, but she says it's so painful until she gets used to it and then it doesn't bother her so much.

It's been a while since I started nursing. Am remembering sore nipples because of an improper latch, myself. Remembering that once I was taught to flare the lips, it was fine. Is there another reason possible? Or is that too open-ended a question?

She said also the baby seems to just want to suck on the end of the nipple, no matter how much she tries to put as much of the aereola (sp?) as possible in. Is that from nipple confusion from the bottles?

Mindblowing to me, that the magnesium is a low-risk medication for nursing, and they *still* used it as an excuse to give bottles in the hospital and set her up for a screwed-up initiation to nursing. Mindblowing.

Thanks for all the answers ...


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## mocha09 (Jul 6, 2003)

I believe that the drugs I was given for pre-eclampsia (maybe it was the magnesium, but I'm not sure) affected my supply, but I could not find any evidence of this in the literature. I produced no milk at all; my milk did come in on Day 7 (!) but it was a tiny trickle if anything.

You can suggest she call a lactation consultant and get a prescription for domperidome. (Saved me, and I was finally able to stop supplementing!)

I had severe nipple pain for about a month, and had baby's latch checked by two different lactation consultants. They both said that she was latching normally. Nobody could figure out why it was so painful, except perhaps the few times she was not latched properly made my nipples raw and bleeding. A few months later I was talking to an LLL person about this, and she said that it could be because my nipples are both small, and very light in pigment. Apparantly, nipples that are light in pigment correlate with more painful nursing in the beginning, according to this lady.


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