From The Wall Street Journal authored by Sumathi Reddy:
“Three times Ada Williams delivered children by caesarean section. Three times doctors prescribed her opioid painkillers.
When she was preparing to deliver her fourth child by C-section, her doctor told her that Cleveland Clinic’s Fairview Hospital was moving away from that.
“I said, ‘No! You’ve gotta give me the narcotics because it’s a C-section, it’s painful,’ ” the 37-year-old says.
Ms. Williams instead alternated large doses of Tylenol and Motrin every three hours after delivering her baby girl, Reighn Maris Williams, on May 16. It worked. She only took one oxycodone pill for intense pain after she missed one of those alternating doses of over-the-counter drugs.
Doctors generally consider it safe for babies when breast-feeding mothers take controlled doses of certain opiates like oxycodone. Most hospitals give women who have C-sections opioids for pain and send them home with a prescription whether they ask for one or not.
Now, some of the country’s leading hospitals are revising this longstanding policy. When given more limited choices, new mothers often find they don’t want or need amounts of opioids that used to come standard, research shows.”
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