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Home › Articles › Overcoming Difficulties › Cancer and HIV:The End of the Breastfeeding Road?

Cancer and HIV:The End of the Breastfeeding Road?

Determining When Breast Isn't Best

By Shel Franco

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mother and babyAll over the world, breast milk is known as the perfect food for human babies. And while it is the hands-down natural way to feed an infant, so many women proclaim an inability to make the nursing relationship work. From breast reductions to family heredity, lots of women have reasons why breastfeeding isn't possible for them or someone they know. But it's a gray area, and there is no all-inclusive list that names exactly when a woman can and can't nurse her baby. In regards to cancer and HIV, having the right information might just keep your baby at the breast much longer than you expected.

Cancer and Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding with cancer can be tricky. And depending on your treatment, it can be down right impossible. "For mothers diagnosed with [cancer] during lactation, they may choose to continue nursing unless their treatment involves chemotherapy or treatment with radioactive compounds," says Anne Smith, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in Winston-Salem, N.C. "All radioactive materials, taken orally or intravenously, and chemotherapeutic drugs cross into the milk and are potentially toxic to the infant."

But there is hope. Not all women will be treated with chemotherapy. And even those who are have an alternative to a permanent end to breastfeeding. "In some cases, mothers are able to discontinue breastfeeding until the drugs are out of their systems and then resume nursing again," Smith says. "If a nursing mother is diagnosed with any type of cancer, she needs to discuss her feelings about [breastfeeding] and her treatment options with her obstetrician, pediatrician and oncologist."


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