Anti-depressants AND anti-hypertensive meds while BF?

[Swan3]

I've been on Paxil for about a month now, with hopes that an improvement in my mood would improve my blood pressure, which is high. So far that hasn't happened and I'm looking at possibly having to take BP medications in addition to Paxil. Has anyone had experience with this? My babe is 10 weeks old and I'm determined to BF (BF my toddler until 2 weeks before this one was born!).

I'd love to hear if anyone's had experience with this and how you dealt with it...

thanks!

[Bokonon]

I don't think the two need to be mutually exclusive.

I had severe preeclampsia with both pregnancies, and have been on Zoloft throughout my pregnancies and breastfeeding. I was on Labetalol for the last 5 weeks of my recent pregnancy, and would have stayed on it if my blood pressure hadn't gone back down shortly after delivery.

With my son, I was on something - Propanolol or Atenolol - but I was only on it for a couple of weeks, all while I was on Zoloft. Aldomet, Propanolol, Labetalol, and Procardia are all L2s, which means they are safe for lactation.

HTH!

[boobs4milk]

dr hale's website

dr hale wrote medicine and mother's milk. maybe this will help! good luck!

[sdmoose]

I agree: Zoloft (I think) has smallest amount of drug that gets into breastmilk of the most popular antidepressants. I can't remember where Paxil is on the list, but I don't think it is much.

I took labetalol after my 2nd son was born due to PIH and pre-eclampsia. I'm still on it, but lower dose now. I did notice that at high dose labetalol it made me quite sleepy.

What is your blood pressure?

Don't let those meds keep you from breastfeeding. Shouldn't be a problem. I don't recommend aldomet. I had lots of side effects on it at the end of my pregnancy

[Swan3]

Originally Posted by sdmoose

What is your blood pressure?

Don't let those meds keep you from breastfeeding. Shouldn't be a problem. I don't recommend aldomet. I had lots of side effects on it at the end of my pregnancy

Thanks, my BP is averaging around 140/95...but I'm super anxious right now and I think it's getting to be a vicious cycle you know? Plus having a screamy toddler & newborn is NOT helping. So did you find it took a while for your BP to go down after giving birth? They told me it would go down but no luck so far. Also, did you typically have higher BPs before? I'd NEVER had issues with BP until the last two weeks of pregnancy. Before that my normal was 108/75....ARGH!

[Swan3]

Originally Posted by boobs4milk

dr hale's website

dr hale wrote medicine and mother's milk. maybe this will help! good luck!

Thank you for this, I had NO idea he actually had a website.

[sdmoose]

Yes, I did have pre-existing high blood pressure. But it was strange...in that my baseline was around 130's/90, but would go up with situational stresses (school, lack of sleep, etc) to maybe 160/100 or so. I was stable BP on very low dose diuretic prior to pregnancies. It was normal during both pregnancies without meds and went up at the end. I got sicker with pre-eclampsia with the 2nd and it did take about 3 weeks-1 month for BP to come down to my baseline level (this is an estimate because I was on 200mg labetalol twice a day for awhile, but then started noting it was dropping my pressures too low that I got dizzy). So, if yours still isn't down it may mean you have some chronic hypertension now. Doesn't help that you aren't getting good sleep (I assume) and have kiddos to care for all day. Have you tried any magnesium for calming? That helps me.