[Anaesthesia and breast-feeding: should breast-feeding be discouraged?]

Until a few years ago an interruption of breast-feeding for 12 or even 24 hours was recommended for breast-feeding mothers after anaesthesia, this is no longer valid. If it is the mother's wish, if she is sufficiently awake and physically able, there is no reason not to start breast-feeding a mature and healthy baby immediately after recovery from a general or regional anaesthesia. Even breast-feeding after a Caesarean delivery with administration of the common anaesthetics in the usual (single) doses is no longer considered to be a problem since the amount of the substance taken up from colostrum is vanishingly small in comparison to the amount that is transferred by transplacental routes. Neither the pharmacological properties of the drugs used in association with anaesthesia nor clinical experience justify an interruption of breast-feeding.