The relationship between maternal labour analgesia and delay in the initiation of breastfeeding in healthy neonates in the early neonatal period

An Infant Breastfeeding Assessment Tool was used to assess the breastfeeding behaviour of 38 healthy, full-term newborn babies of multiparous women from birth until effective feeding was established. After data collection was completed, the babies were divided into a non-medicated group (n = 18) and an alphaprodine group (n = 20) based upon the medication profile of the mother. Inter-group differences were analysed using ANOVA and Dunnett's t-test. The dependent variables were the hours from birth to establishing effective breastfeeding and IBFAT scores at 12, 24, 36 and 48 hours after birth. The findings suggest that even small doses of the narcotic analgesic alphaprodine, when administered 1 to 3 hours prior to delivery, can delay effective feeding by several hours and in some cases, days.