15 - Medical Complications of Mothers

Abstract

Lactation is a two-person system, and breastfeeding both affects and is affected by the mother’s physiology. Both acute maternal health conditions and chronic disorders may have an impact on the mother–baby dyad. Often, the mother’s acute health condition itself does not affect breastfeeding physiology, but the process of navigating the health care system disrupts lactation. Any clinician who cares for women of childbearing age and cares for women who are lactating must consider both the effects of lactation on maternal health conditions and the effects of maternal health conditions on lactation. Such care requires consideration of the whole mother–baby dyad, centered on the values and preferences of the lactating woman. The distinct individual health conditions affecting mothers must be examined along with any proposed medical management to optimize the initiation and maintenance of lactation. Medication use in the mother should be guided by the medication’s safety profile during lactation. Consultation of regularly updated databases of the newest information on the medication’s use in lactation is essential to optimal use safely for the mother and infant.