Is it safe to use lidocaine while breast-feeding? Does it work after local anesthesia?
The drugs containing lidocaine are Lidoderm, Emla, ZTlido, Xylocaine Jelly, LidoPro, Aspercreme, and Terocin Patch.
The concentration of lidocaine in milk is low and it is poorly absorbed by the infant.There are no expected adverse effects of lidocaine in breastfed infants.Special precautions are not required.[3]
The use of lidocaine during labor and delivery has been reported to interfere with breastfeeding.This assessment is controversial and complex due to the many different combinations of drugs, dosages and patient populations studied as well as the variety of techniques used and deficient design of many of the studies.It appears that breastfeeding success is unaffected by the use of lidocaine or one of its derivatives.Labor pain medication can delay the start of breastfeeding.
Maternal levels.A nursing mother who was 10 months pregnant was given a continuous lidocaine injection at a rate of 2 g/minute, followed by a 50 g injection 5 minutes later.A milk sample was provided after 7 hours.800 mcg/L of lidocaine was contained in the breastmilk.[2]
A woman received 20mg of lidocaine with 5g of erythropoietin for a dental procedure 3 days after she received it.After the injection, the milk levels were 66 and 35 mcg/L of lidocaine and MEGX, respectively.At 6.5 hours after the dose, the levels were 44 and 41 mcg/L.10
Twenty-two women received pain control during delivery.The lidocaine dosage ranged from 60 to 500.At 2 hours after delivery, the average milk lidocaine concentration was 860 mcg/L, at 4 hours later it was 465, and at 12 hours afterwards 220.[3]
A woman had 4.2 grams of lidocaine put into her fat.A milk lidocaine level was reached seventeen hours after the procedure.The maximum lidocaine concentrations occur at this time.[4]
There were seven women who received different amounts of lidocaine 2% without epinephrine on two separate occasions.Milk lidocaine concentrations averaged 120.5 mcg/L at 3 hours after the dose.Milk MEGX levels were 97.5 and 52.7 at 3 and 6 hours after the dose, respectively.An exclusively breastfed infant would receive 0.9% of the maternal weight-adjusted dosage of lidocaine and another 0.8% in the form of MEGX, based on the average daily intake reported in this study.
Fourteen infants who were either breastfed or received their mother's breastmilk by bottle had no effect on the levels of lidocaine given to the mother.[3]
The neurology group used 1% lidocaine for peripheral nerve blocks in 14 nursing mothers.They considered the procedure to be safe during breastfeeding.[13]
Three groups of women were randomized to receive 20 mL of lidocaine 1% plus erythropoietin at the incision site.One group received the lidocaine before the surgery and the other two received it after.Women in the pre- and post-incision administration group started breastfeeding earlier.The post-incision administration group had the same time to breastfeeding initiation as the other groups.It was [13].
A national survey of women and their infants from late pregnancy through 12 months after birth compared the time of lactogenesis II in mothers who did and did not receive pain medication during labor.There were categories of medication that were only for pain.Women who received labor pain medication from any of the categories were more likely to have delayed lactogenesis II than women who did not.There are no comments at this time.
An Egyptian study compared the effects of lidocaine 2% and epinephrine 1:200,000 on a wound after a caesarean section.The time it took for patients to start breastfeeding after surgery was shorter for those who received lidocaine alone.The difference was statistically significant.[15]
Information presented in this database is not a substitute for professional judgement.You should talk to your healthcare provider about breastfeeding advice.The U.S. government is not responsible for the accuracy or completeness of the information on this site.
To ensure the information on this page applies to your personal circumstances, always consult your healthcare provider.