Breast feeding and anaesthesia.

Anaesthetists require a good knowledge of the excretion of drugs in breast milk and the potential hazards to suckling infants of drug ingestion via breast milk. A brief account of the physiology of lactation is given. The mechanisms of drug passage into breast milk are discussed followed by a review of the excretion in breast milk of drugs used in anaesthetic practice. Suggestions for the management of anaesthesia in breast feeding mothers are offered.