Treatment of Women With Epilepsy

Breast-Feeding

Breast-feeding is strongly recommended by most health organizations in order to promote maternal-child bonding and to reduce the risk of infection and immunological disorders later in life.^[114] AEDs cross into breast milk to variable extents. For most women the best advice is to consider breast-feeding seriously. Once it is started, the infant can be observed for proper weight gain and sleep cycles. The mother must also be advised that AED metabolism and clearance will remain elevated as long as breast-feeding continues. When breast-feeding stops, the mother may experience an increase in serum AED concentrations requiring a dosage adjustment.

Semin Neurol. 2002;22(3) © 2002  Thieme Medical Publishers