Question:
And of course I would be interested in hearing from women who took Zoloft
while breastfeeding. Did drinking lots of water improve the headaches?
Were your babies affected in any way? Did you seek out alternative ways
to reduce stress/depression/ppd?
Answer:
Have you asked about if the dosage could be reduced? While I wasn't
Bfing when I was on it, I found the standard dosage caused the
problems you mentioned. My doctor had me take half a pill instead of
a whole one, and the bad side effects lessened over the course of the
following week, but didn't go away completely. Since everyone reacts
differently to seratonin uptake inhibitors, YMMV. I ended up being
switched to Paxil and the lowest daily dose and I had no bad side
effects from that.
I stopped taking Paxil cold turkey the day I found out I was pregnant,
because I wasn't sure it was safe for first trimester use. It was
really rough trying to deal with my depression on top of the pregnancy
hormonal changes, but after the first month or so, as the pregnancy
stabilized and I made some other lifestyle changes to reduce the
stress that aggravated my depression (of course, not everyone will be
able to quit a horrible job to get rid of the primary cause of the
stress!), I found that my emotional highs and lows were a lot easier
to deal with. My doctor asked if I felt that I should go back on the
Paxil after my baby is born (due 11/15/97), and I told him that I'd
like to avoid doing so since I've been doing so well without it, but I
wouldn't rule it out if Postpartum depression became a really big
problem. We are planning on playing it by ear, with the eye on the
well being of our baby coming first.
Ask about dosage adjustment, and whether Paxil or one of the other
SUI's are safe when Bfing and hopefully, you'll be feeling better.
I found a book titled "Beyond Prozac" to be helpful in finding alternative
lifestyles and/or diet & exercise changes. These really work! The author is
Michael J Norden, MD. You should be able to find this @ the local library.
