Medical abortion is a process, which ends pregnancy using Mifepristone & Misoprostol. A huge amount of women experience this process because they already have children and do not wish to expand their families, or do not have the capacity (physical/financial/emotional) to take care of another one. A percentage of these females are those who are going to have the medical abortion method, while they are still breast feeding as a result of previous pregnancy.
Even if there haven’t been studies on exact how the anti-progesterone agents affect the lactation, there have been several studies on the amount of anti-progesterone present in the milk.
The study: drug levels
In the study, 12 females went through a termination using abortion pills provided milk samples for five days from the day of the process.
In the two women who were given the dose of Mifepristone of 200mg orally. The anti-progesterone medicine was not detected in the milk at all times.
In the meantime among the 10 women who were given 600 mg of Mifepristone dose orally, the average medicine levels in their breast milk was 172mcg/L on day one with the number considerably reducing day by day to finally reaching 25mcg/L on day five.
The study found that the presence of mifepristone in samples collected in between 6-9 hours after medicinal administration were at peak levels. While, samples collected in between 9-15 hours following the consumption had much lower drug levels.
The study anticipated that a fully breast fed child would receive around 0.5% of the dosage taken by the mother in case of 600mg.
The result of the study:
The studies thus suggest that the breastfeeding may not be interrupted on an account of 200mg dosage and that the 200mg dosage was preferable to 600mg the old dosage. This change was made because the 200mg was proven to be adequate in terminating the pregnancy.
So which abortion process is suited when you have breast-feeding infant?
It is still recommended to stop breast feeding while getting an abortion with MTP Kit (abortion pill kit), as some of the medicines may pass into milk (even if in negligible amounts) and thus can cause diarrhea to the child who is being fed.
If the females, but does not want to stop breast feeding while terminating her pregnancy, she must choose to do abortion with a surgical process.
The abortive surgery doesn’t involve hormonal pills and thus no chemicals are introduced in the body which could be passed into breast milk.
Even so, if the person is given pain medicine or anesthesia, she should discuss regarding her health and if she can continue breastfeeding right away following and after the process.
Moreover, even diet can affect the quality of milk produced in the mammary glands. In such cases, it is better to consult a lactation consultant regarding about what to eat while she is aborting.
When to begin or stop nursing?
In case the female has gone through a medication pregnancy termination, and she doesn’t want to breastfeed the baby at the time, she can just throw away the milk produced within 5-7 hours after the drug administration- Misoprostol as well as Mifepristone. Although, today females are only required to take 200mg, precaution like these must be taken.
After 5-7 hours, but she can safely nurse her child. In case she is feeling ill, tired, or feverish, it is advised to consult a professional about the suitability as well as risk of breast feeding in her condition.