Breastfeeding with Low Platelets and Low White Blood Cells

What exactly are your blood counts?

It is actually more dangerous to be pregnant with those issues than to be nursing. Nursing is more of a nutrition thing, and is the healthiest option for BOTH of you. You'd be amazed what stopping nursing can actually do to your system.

I had low blood counts during pregnancy (platelets were usually at 55K as opposed to the normal count of 150K + and ended up dropping to 27K). They went up to a still low 85K once she was born, and my blood counts were still low so I had to get B-12 injections and see my hemotolgist every other week. No one ever told me I needed to stop nursing. Basically, nursing and blood counts are not linked now that she is outside of you!

Best of luck to you--it can be scary, but rest assured your gift of nursing will not sacrifice your health.

I would think it would be top priority to address your medical condition, either through nutrition (to boost your immune system and help re-establish your body's natural abilities) or through medication (which may just treat symptoms, not causes). Breastfeeding not only puts a strain on your own body, whatever your body's limitations are now might affect the quality of the breast milk and its intended benefit.

Thats a little scary, to have those things going on. Have you had any other side effects? Have they talked to you about risk for infection (with low white blood cells) and risk for bleeding? Since blood counts are not directly related to hormones, you should still be able to make milk unless you're also anemic which would make production a little more difficult. With that said though, perhaps if you take a little break, see if your baby is hungry (if he takes a bottle really well and quickly I'm sure that would tell you) then make a decision about continuing to breastfeed. I have to tell you, with one of my kids, I dropped my blood sugar(to the point of passing out) when breastfeeding. I saw a Dr., who said it couldn't be related because of hormones, etc and evaluated me for everything else. Finally I got so tired of passing out and tests I just decided to stop breast feeding anyways (baby was 5 months)for my own ability to cope. After a couple of days my blood sugar never dropped again. Breast feeding is very hard on your body, and when you may have other health issues going on, it might be better to let your body concentrate on itself while you figure out whats going on. Its hard to say if they are related, the hematologist may or may not be able to tell you, but easing the burden on your body (if you can and want to) may be a good idea. Good luck

Hi J. -
There were studies done comparing the milk of healthy women vs. starving women (in Africa) - the milk was essentially the same. It's amazing what our bodies can and will do to nourish our infants.
Also, this sounds a little crazy, but I have had low platelets for awhile now due to side effects of chemotherapy and I was actually told that the only thing that would help was either drinking human breast milk or taking shark liver oil capsules. So as unappealing as it may sound - you might want to consider pumping some for yourself!