Codeine and nursing moms -- rare but dangerous side-effect (death ment'd)

On 2006-05-13 15:05:51 +0800, Irrational Number said:

Engram wrote:

Another disturbing thing is that this reminded me that when my sister
gave birth by cesarian section she was offered morphine for pain
management. Given it transfers to a breastfed child, this is a rather
scary practice our hospitals are employing. Now I'm glad she refused
the morphine, given that she had given birth to tiny premature twins
(both under 1kg each)!

Did your sister get anything for the
pain then? (instead of morphine) Also,
what was in her anesthesia? I cannot
imagine any hospital doing a major
abdominal operation without anesthesia...

I got morphine as my spinal, but refused
codeine because I hallucinate on it. I
took Percocet and Vicodin instead.

-- Anita --

I wish I knew what the aussie versions of all these drugs are... I know
morphine though...



Jo
--
Woman, Wife, Mother, Midwife

wrote:
Donna Metler writes:

: My fear is that women who have medically necessary C-sections will be denied
: appropriate pain management if they want to breastfeed. If they had told me,
: post C-section, that I had a choice of breastfeeding or medication, I'm
: sorry, but there would have been no way that I would have been able to go
: unmedicated in order to breastfeed. A c-section is major surgery, and, at
: least for me, it feels it.

That is a valid fear, but there are still more medically unnecessary
c-sections in this country currently than the other way around!

You know what, Larry, medically necessary or not, if they cut me open,
I want painkillers that work afterwards. I've had one c-section
without working anesthesia for part of it, and one c-section recovery
where I had to practically fight the nurse to call the doctor for
working anesthesia. It -hurts-. Unbelievably. The third time I had
Demoral, which isn't so safe on the mother and for which I had to be
on oxygen for twelve hours because I was altered. I did not care. :P

Michelle
Flutist

Michelle wrote:

"You know what, Larry, medically necessary or not, if they cut me open,

I want painkillers that work afterwards."

Hear hear!!! And my experience wasn't even that bad, and I healed
relatively quickly -- but on day 3, when the meds wore off, the pain
was excrutiating.

Although I think Larry's main point (1 reported death out of 150,000
isn't that bad) is a good one. I'm glad I've read the article; it's
good to know what to look out for in case the next one has to be
another section (although I'm guessing that since there weren't any
problems the first time around, I must not metabolize codeine like
that).

Em
mama to Micah, 11/14/04

wrote:

They said codiene is most commonly given for episiotomies and
c-sections. I have an idea. Let's quit doing episiotomies and
reduce the c-section rate.
[snippage]

Hahahahahah!!!! Sorry. I ASKED for mine. Peekaboo more than 10 times,
I was done.
--
Cheri Stryker
mom to DS1 - almost 7!, and DS2 - almost 3 months

Anne Rogers wrote:

Aspirin is recommended for breastfeeding,

Hi, lurker butting in here.
Aspirin is _not_ recommeded for breast-feeding mothers, as it is
contraindicated for children under 16 (can cause Reyes syndrome). We
can has paracetomol or ibuprofen, but that's about it!

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles...?ArticleId=854

JC

I'd go so far as to say don't use ibuprofen if your child is under 6 months
old. In Australia ibuprofen is not available in infant pain killers until
the child is 6 months old, anyway, so I'd go with not taking it myself while
breastfeeding, either, as it does pass into the milk in small doses. It's
also counterindicated for use during pregnancy as the effect on the foetus
is unknown.

Ibuprofen, and other drugs in its class, is also known to carry a higher
risk of allergic reaction in individuals with asthma. Although such
reactions are said to be rare in children and the risk is higher in adults,
I personally don't take ibuprofen or give it to DS as my husband is
asthmatic and I'm not sure whether DS is at risk. As asthma is heritable and
DS already has eczema, indicating a propensity for allergies, I remain on
probably the overly cautious side of things that might affect him.

"Herald" wrote in message
.uk...
Anne Rogers wrote:

Aspirin is recommended for breastfeeding,

Hi, lurker butting in here.
Aspirin is _not_ recommeded for breast-feeding mothers, as it is
contraindicated for children under 16 (can cause Reyes syndrome). We can
has paracetomol or ibuprofen, but that's about it!

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles...?ArticleId=854

JC

wrote:
Several comments:

Let's see, 150,000 women are given codiene a year and we have one
reported death. Yes, I'd say it is pretty rare.

They said codiene is most commonly given for episiotomies and
c-sections. I have an idea. Let's quit doing episiotomies and
reduce the c-section rate. The blantent stupidity of the medical
profession at times amazes me. I'm sure the formula companies
will find some way to use it to discourage breastfeeding. Grrrrr!

Fantastic idea. But if I'd not had an epi I'm not sure I wouldn't have
needed a section. Not doing an epi wasn't an option.

What's "blantent", by the way? Or codiene, for that matter.

That really presumes that they "observe" carefully. I almost died from
inadequate "observation" when I was a teenager. If theyr'e not looking
for the right things, all the observation in the world isn't
necessarily going to help.

Jenrose

"Michelle J. Haines" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Donna Metler writes:

: My fear is that women who have medically necessary C-sections will be
denied
: appropriate pain management if they want to breastfeed. If they had
told me,
: post C-section, that I had a choice of breastfeeding or medication, I'm
: sorry, but there would have been no way that I would have been able to
go
: unmedicated in order to breastfeed. A c-section is major surgery, and,
at
: least for me, it feels it.

That is a valid fear, but there are still more medically unnecessary
c-sections in this country currently than the other way around!

You know what, Larry, medically necessary or not, if they cut me open, I
want painkillers that work afterwards.

I don't think anyone's denying that - so would I! But Larry makes some valid
points in his earlier post - the c-section and episiotomy rates are too
high, and it's a rare occurance in particular women with certain genetic
markers. If you reduce the number of women needing pain relief to begin
with - reduce intervention - then you can better watch those who do need it
and whose babies might be at risk, and take appropriate action.
It's a small risk, something that it's good to be aware of, and the
likelihood of it occurring to the point of fatality can be greatly reduced,
so win-win really.


--
Amy
Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02,
& Ana born screaming 30/06/04
http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/
My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/

"Linz" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Several comments:

Let's see, 150,000 women are given codiene a year and we have one
reported death. Yes, I'd say it is pretty rare.

They said codiene is most commonly given for episiotomies and
c-sections. I have an idea. Let's quit doing episiotomies and
reduce the c-section rate. The blantent stupidity of the medical
profession at times amazes me. I'm sure the formula companies
will find some way to use it to discourage breastfeeding. Grrrrr!

Fantastic idea. But if I'd not had an epi I'm not sure I wouldn't have
needed a section. Not doing an epi wasn't an option.

What's "blantent", by the way? Or codiene, for that matter.

Not that it's 'pick on Larry day', but I particularly liked 'mumtiple ;-)


--
Amy
Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02,
& Ana born screaming 30/06/04
http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/
My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/