OBJECTIVE: Maintaining breastfeeding is important issue for postpartum mothers during hospitalization, in terms of leading to cessation and detachment from their babies. It has been proved that all psychotropic drugs can transfer into breast milk, but their levels are very low or even negligible for the newborn. The benefits of breastfeeding are well-known. During hospital stays, pumping the milk maintains the lactation. In this study the aim was to investigate the benefits of pumping breast milk and effects on continuation of breastfeeding.
METHODS: We conducted a prospective study in which 13 hospitalized women that need to continue psychotropic therapy during postpartum and wished to continue breastfeeding after receiving information about breastfeeding while using psychotropic therapy. Until the transition to maintenance therapy, mothers’ pump milk and drop for the purpose of preventing cessation, then their milk was collected and given to babies by relatives while hospitalization. After discharge, the information of the status of both mother and child were received by telephone interviews.
RESULTS: A total of 13 mothers hospitalized of which 9 were followed up by telephone interviews and one of them had twin. 10 infants were evaluated. Most of mothers were 30-35 years old and mean age of them was 32.3 years. The educational levels of mothers were 11.07 years (5-15 years). 3 of them had a history of psychiatric disorder in the family. All were married. Furthermore, in the course of clinical interview, bipolar disorder were diagnosed as the most frequent disorder among 8 (61.5%) mothers of the case group and 4 of them had psychotic disorder (30.7%), 2 of them had depression (15.3%). All mothers initiated to pump breast milk in the hospital after receiving information by treatment team. Mean period of total breastfeeding in the postpartum period was 11.15 weeks. Mean period of hospitalization was 29.4 days. No adverse effects were noticed, and the mothers experienced a rapid improvement in their psychopathologies during their hospital stays and had no episode of the diagnosed psychiatric disorders during 6 months following discharge. The infants developed normally and showed no side effects during the treatment period while breastfeeding and after.
CONCLUSION: This study contributed to increase our knowledge about breastfeeding strategies for the mothers need to hospitalized and continue psychotropic therapy during breastfeeding. Furthermore, this study contributed to our understanding of the relationship between maternal education level, the importance of receiving information, and the continuation of exclusive breastfeeding.