# Omeprazole and breastfeeding



## GretaGarbo (Oct 14, 2007)

Hello,

I am currently taking 40mg of Omprazole per day. I've been taking this for months now, with the dosage gradually increased from 10mg to 40mg. Without the Omprazole I'm in agony and I vomit nearly everything I eat. They think I have acid reflux and possibly a hiatus hernia caused by the pregnancy, the hope is that it will get better once the baby is born but I'll probably still have the problem to a certain extent and its quite likely I'll need to continue taking the Omprazole. (They are going to do investigations once the baby is born.) The Omprazole does not cure the problem entirely but it certainly makes life more bearable. 

However I am extremely keen to breastfeed and I'm worried that this will be a problem due to the Omprazole. Breastfeeding is very important to me but I'm aware that the Omprazole will probably be passed to the baby via my milk. However I can't function very well off the medication, so I don't know what to do. 

I've Googled it and get very conflicating answers whether its possible to take Omprazole while breastfeeding. What would you advise? Is there a more suitable proton pump inhibitor I could switch to? I'd like to stay on the Omprazole if at all possible but I'd rather be on another medication, than none at all. 

Sorry if this is a difficult question to answer, I know they can't test medication on pregnant/breastfeeding mothers. I will ask my GP but he's difficult to get an appointment with, and I was hoping you could advise in the mean time. I asked my midwife but she did not know. Thank you very much for your time 

- Greta.


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## GretaGarbo (Oct 14, 2007)

Hi,

I posted the above a couple of weeks ago  I was just wondering if you had any thoughts on the safety of omprazole (or any proton pump inhibitor) during breastfeeding? 

Thanks  

- Greta.


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## mazv (Jul 31, 2006)

Hi Greta,

Sorry not to get back to you sooner. I had to access more detailed info via work and never got a chance to do that until end of last week (just incredibly busy with work/life just now, sorry)

Bottom line is there is no substantial body of evidence to say whether omeprazole (or any PPI) is 100% safe or not. The manufacturers information is that omeprazole is excreted into breast milk but it is unlikely to influence the baby when used at normal doses. So they aren't saying it's a complete no. Like everything else the risks/benefit of treatment for you plus benefits of breastfeeding will need to be weighed up.

Omeprazole is used by specialists in treatment of severe GORD/reflux in infants from a young age so from that point of view it can be used in babies but as with all drugs they can experience side effects. With breast feeding the doses received would be much smaller than if baby was being treated with it themselves. The small studies done on omeprazole have shown quite a wide variability in concentrations that show up in milk though and it can be hard to give an accurate estimate as it depends on volume of fore milk to hind milk sampled. The hind milk is the more calorific full fat milk and the lipophilic drugs, such as omeprazole will tend to accumulate more in the hind milk.

Midwives and HVs should be able to give comprehensive advice on best regimen for feeding if you are taking prescription meds. You can minimise exposure of baby to the drug by co-ordinating feeds around timing of meds and trying to ensure you are avoiding feeding at times when you would have peak levels in your body/milk. Also expressing and discarding milk that may have accumulated higher levels of drug can be an option too.

So it's not a complete no but the best thing to do is discuss options with GP and midwife/HV as they will have a complete histroy of your condition and be better placed to evaluate the risk/benefit ration with you.

Hope this helps. All the best for the new arrival soon!    

Maz x


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