Breastfeeding with a pacemaker

Hi
I am a 33 year old mother of two beautiful girls aged 2 years old and 6 months old and had my first pacemaker implanted in November 2007 - 3 months after the birth of my second daughter. I was diagnosed with complete heart block at 17 weeks into my second pregnancy.

I have breasfed my baby from birth, and despite assurances from my Cardiologist, I am still so nervous that the pacemaker will somehow damage my daughter since she is in such frequent contact with my chest and obviously with breastmilk produced by my body which now has a pacemaker in it! The pacemaker is just below my left collarbone. I know in theory, nothing should 'leak' from the pacemaker battery, and surely if it was to leak I'd have some kind of infection that I'd be aware of, but I can't shake this niggling fear that I could slowly be poisoning her. I have tried to get her onto formula since prior to the surgery, but she won't have a bar of it and even refused any sort of milk from the bottle while I was in hospital - just quietly waited for my return and then made up for lost time!

Can anyone out there reassure me.......thanks!
Michelle

9 Comments

breastfeeding

by thomast - 2008-03-08 06:03:32

Your PM is sealed in a waterproof and air tight case and nothing is going to leak out of it. I would say not to worry about it.

Harm To Your Baby

by SMITTY - 2008-03-08 06:03:45

Michelle,

It is very seldom that I will say a pacemaker absolutely cannot do something. But in the case of hurting your baby I have to say there is no way that your pacemaker can ever do it any harm. Even with the remotest of remote possibilities that the battery could spring a leak, that sealed battery is inside a sealed pacemaker case. That means anything from the battery has got to get through two protective cases and a layer or two of human tissue before getting to your baby. And that doesn't even address what would have to take place for the contaminants from a battery to get to the baby's milk.

So worry about something that has a much greater possibility of happening, like a meteorite or asteroid crashing through your roof and causing injury to your entire family. To maybe put it in a little better perspective, do you purposely avoid any contact your baby has with a battery powered watch? The risk of the pacemaker causing harm is even less that of a watch.

Smitty

breastfeding

by Mary Thompson - 2008-03-08 09:03:53

Contact the mfg and ask what the risk is. I assume that most batteries pose little or no risk to babies and I don't see how it could leak and if it did it would stop working and you would know.
Mary

Thanks

by michelle - 2008-03-08 11:03:39

Thanks to all so far - especially Smitty - great to have a laugh at myself instead of worry!
Michelle

Breastfeeding.....

by sweetkozy - 2008-03-09 03:03:55

Hello Michelle,

First off, congrats on the baby...be it 6 months old already!
You have a very interesting question that I would NEVER have thought of! I just want to reassure you too. I breastfed both my children for a year while having a pacemaker and they are now 4 and 2 years old and are doing absolutely wonderful! Please don't worry about it. I believe if your battery had a chance of leaking or was leaking you would feel the effects. Rest assure..... you and your baby are going to do great and I am so happy to hear you are breastfeeding!!!!! KUDOS to you! I would start worrying about when your girls hit their teenage years. Hahahahaha. I know I'm not looking forward to my girl being a teenager. :)

Cheers:)
Jenny

Never gave it a thought.

by Pacing13 - 2008-03-09 12:03:29

Hi Michelle -

I too have two daughters, ages 7 and 3. I breast fed both of them and they are fine!

I very seldom think of my pm. I have led an active normal life with my pm for 22 years. Something like this would be far fetched in my mind and my experience, but it never hurts to ask :)

Good luck
Pacing13

Don't worry

by josie1992 - 2008-04-04 03:04:16

Hi Michelle;

Don't worry about anything. I just have birth to my son on March 22. I had a pace maker put on me March 29. All this time though I have been breastfeeding. I breastfeed by son all the time. I spoke with about 5 diffrent doctors and did an intensive research on this matter. We are okay to breastfeed. I know it is hard to understand and the fears are more then we can deal with but don't worry about anything. Think about it this way our pace maker are meant to last a lifetime.

Take care;

Josie

Breast Feeding

by denise.theobald - 2008-04-16 12:04:43



I had 4 children and breast fed them all..with no problems. Kick back and enjoy your baby....and enjoy feeding her.

My kids are doing great!

by anjii - 2008-06-03 04:06:56

I never even thought of that possibility... possibly because I rarely remember that I have a pacemaker, lol. I breastfed my first for 2+ years, and he's an extremely intelligent and healthy 3 year old. I'm also nursing my 8 1/2 month old, and he's doing great as well. I agree with the others that the risk is basically non-existant...

What I'm concerned about right now, is getting my replacement put in in 2 weeks, and how it's going to be very challenging to get through the first few days/weeks without damaging our feeding relationship or my supply... but I'll start my own thread, rather than hijack yours ;)

You know you're wired when...

You run like the bionic man.

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