Infant Risk—Breastfeeding and Medicine
It's often hard to find reliable information on what is safe to injest or what treatment to pursue when you're breastfeeding. You just spent 9 months growing a baby--yay you can take your old meds….or not. Doctors, even OBs, often have conservative, outdated information regarding health and breastfeeding, and it's difficult to call a lactation consultant each time you have (sometimes time sensitive) questions. Clearly, a centralized, easy to read summary of not only individual medications, but also best practices for breastfeeding treatment that prioritizes both partners of the dyad--the mother and child--is necessary.
Infant Risk is a website run out of Texas Tech University. Within you will find frequently updated, evidence based recommendations on various medications, medical procedures, and other breastfeeding recommendations. Additionally, research is a priority to Infant Risk as very few researchers are currently studying or even conducting observational studies of pharmalogical usage in breastfeeding mothers.
Additionally, Infant Risk also runs a call center for providers, lactation consultants, and breastfeeding individuals to call in and receive answers to specific questions.
Here are some common questions they've answered.
Alcohol and Breastfeeding--including a time to zero calculator
I had to turn to Infant Risk when I wasn’t sure if I could get an MRI of my hip with contrast or not while breastfeeding. My ortho wasn’t sure, but due to my malnutrition from HG, I may have transient postpartum osteoporosis. Infant Risk helped me evaluate what my options were with the contrast and a bottle refusing baby.
Infant Risk and other resources like LactMed remain important resources in assisting breastfeeding mothers to continue on their journey while preserving their own health by making evidence-based decisions.
