NICE Recommendation 15 on Prescribing
The following information is taken from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on
Maternal and child nutrition, which aims to address disparities in the nutrition of low-income and other disadvantaged groups compared with the general population.
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Prescribing
Recommendation 15
Who is the target population?
Hospital doctors, GPs, obstetricians, pharmacists, specialist nurses, dentists and PCT medicine management teams.
Who should take action?
NHS trusts responsible for maternity care and GP surgeries, community health centres, pharmacies and drug and alcohol services.
What action should they take?
- Ensure health professionals and pharmacists who prescribe or dispense drugs to a breastfeeding mother consult supplementary sources (for example, the Drugs and Lactation Database [LactMed] www.toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT) or seek guidance from the UK Drugs in Lactation Advisory Service (www.ukmicentral.nhs.uk/drugpreg/guide.htm).
- Health professionals should discuss the benefits and risks associated with the prescribed medication and encourage the mother to continue breastfeeding, if reasonable to do so. In most cases, it should be possible to identify a suitable medication which is safe to take during breastfeeding by analysing pharmokinetic and study data. Appendix 5 of the ‘British national formulary’ should only be used as a guide as it does not contain quantitative data on which to base individual decisions.
- Health professionals should recognise that there may be adverse health consequences for both mother and baby if the mother does not breastfeed. They should also recognise that it may not be easy for the mother to stop breastfeeding abruptly – and that it is difficult to reverse.
Read the full National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on Maternal and Child Nutrition Guidance
here.