One of the online tools most used by breastfeeding mothers is the E-breastfeeding website, which is a true bible of medicines and other substances related to breastfeeding.
The purpose of this page is to know what the safety of a substance is for a baby, when the mother takes it. Since in many drug prospects there is talk of "Pregnancy and Lactation", as if they were the same, when the risk is very different (almost like night to day), this website has become an essential element for mothers and for health professionals. Thanks to it, many mothers who breastfeed can take medications that were previously discouraged and treat ailments that they suffered unnecessarily (I know cases of mothers with untreated low back pain, or mothers who are treated and weaned by medical order, not being necessary).
Now, thanks to the advance of new technologies and thanks to the fact that mobile phones have become small computers where we can have programs, we can have the data of E-lactation in the mobile, without the need for internet connection, thanks to an Android application by name Lactation.
The application has been created by VeraTech for Health, a company that combines computer science with medicine and belongs to the Polytechnic University of Valencia. To create this program they have had the collaboration of Dr. José María Paricio, father of the web E-lactation, with whom we have already spoken at Babies and more.
The operation of the program is very simple. We have a search engine in which to insert the drug or substance that we want to know, being recommended the use of the name of the substance, rather than the commercial name (better "paracetamol" than "gelocatil"). There is also a search engine for drug groups, necessary when you have to choose a drug from a specific group and you don't know which one is compatible with breastfeeding and which one is not.
Once we enter the chosen drug we have the information we want: it informs us of the level of risk, which works the same as the website, by levels and colors (at lower, safer), it gives us information about the type of substance that It is, offers us a comment on this, possible alternatives if the drug is not fully compatible and gives us the date of the last revision of the information.
If we want more information, we can buy an advanced version (the one with the basic information is called “Lactation mom”) called “Lactation Doctor”, which is the one I bought, which offers data related to the pharmacokinetics of medicines (how the substance behaves once ingested) and provides the bibliography consulted to reach the conclusions of each substance (the mom version also has a bibliography).
Lactation mom costs € 1.99, while Lactation Doctor costs € 2.49. There is a trial version called Lactation Lite, which is the free “mom” version for 7 days, to try it and decide if you want to buy or not.
To me The page of E-breastfeeding seems essential if you are breastfeeding or if you are a health professional and you care for mothers who breastfeed. Having it on mobile with the possibility of consulting it at any time seems like a great advance because, in addition, we can send the data that we are consulting for mail (Those situations in which someone calls to ask and, you look at it at the moment, sending the information by email to see it with your own eyes).
