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Review of 'Hale's Medications & Mothers' Milk'
Healthcare providers need reference resources to support the ability to provide high-quality, safe care for patients. There are times when a woman is breastfeeding and needs to take medication for either chronic or acute medical problems. Providers often do not know if a medication is safe for a mother to ingest while breastfeeding; this can result in recommendations to mothers to defer breastfeeding while on particular medications. Considering the many known health benefits of breastfeeding for both mothers and infants, it is important for healthcare providers and mothers to have a better understanding of the relationships among medications and lactation. Hale's Medications & Mothers' Milk (Hale, 2019) is a comprehensive resource to use when helping a breastfeeding mother make an informed decision to breastfeed or not while taking medication.
Dr. Thomas W. Hale, RPh, PhD, has published the 18th edition of Hale's Medications & Mothers' Milk (2019) to assist in the further understanding of lactation pharmacology. Changes in this edition include the addition of 39 new drugs and the updating of more than 331 drugs. Treatments for new infectious diseases have been added and others updated based on current literature. Dr. Hale collaborated with staff at the Infant Risk Center in deciding what drugs should...