Can women undergoing treatment for tuberculosis continue to breastfeed?

Pregnant women have a higher risk of tuberculosis than other groups, mainly because the body has hormonal changes such as oestrogen, progesterone, and a weakened immune system. What is the concern of pregnant women with TB is that they are being treated for TB, can they breastfeed?

Pregnant women have a higher risk of tuberculosis than other groups of subjects, mainly because the body has hormonal changes such as oestrogen, progesterone. Placental hormones appear, causing the organs serving the process of pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing including the genital system, pelvis, skin and muscles to increase metabolism and absorb more water. These reasons make the lung tissue, the scar tissue becomes softer, creating conditions for TB bacteria to work more easily.
In addition, pregnant women with tuberculosis is also due to a weakened immune system, increased nutritional needs of the body, but the diet has not been able to supplement enough nutrients, or loss of strength and fatigue..
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Tuberculosis is a very dangerous infectious disease, especially, pregnant women with TB have a great ability to transmit the disease to their babies. Therefore, when TB bacteria infection is suspected during pregnancy, pregnant women should follow the following instructions:
Go to medical facilities, hospitals with TB specialties to do clinical and paraclinical tests, to accurately diagnose tuberculosis. Tests for TB during pregnancy are generally safe during pregnancy as long as the testing technique is guaranteed. However, pregnant women should note that they must inform the doctor or testing technician about being pregnant so that they can ensure the safety of the fetus when performing testing techniques. In the case of X-rays, pregnant women should remind medical staff to wear lead on the abdomen to protect the fetus from X-rays.

In order to minimize the possibility of affecting the baby, pregnant women with TB need to take TB medicine according to the regimen and instructions of the doctor. The drugs of first choice are INH, rifampicin, and ethambutol. Doses of these drugs are used daily for 2 months. INH and rifampicin can be used twice a week during pregnancy. Medicines used to treat nodal TB during pregnancy are still safe for pregnant women, so TB treatment can be continued during pregnancy. However, Streptomycin and PZA should not be used because of possible adverse effects on the fetus. It is best to avoid pregnancy while being treated for TB. If you are pregnant, you should not be too worried.
In addition, pregnant women also need a proper rest to help restore the abdomen. During pregnancy, pregnant women need to increase the supply and supplement of nutrients to improve the health and fitness of both mother and baby, need to ensure that the calories are provided, the food must be rich in protein, vitamins and minerals. matter. Supplementing with calcium and fish oil will have the effect of supporting the recovery of the infected lung area, however, pregnant women should consult their doctors before using.
Children whose pregnant mothers have TB should be carefully monitored for early detection of congenital TB. Children also need to be vaccinated with BCG early to prevent primary TB.
After giving birth, pregnant mothers who have been treated for tuberculosis can still breastfeed because the risk of the effects of TB drugs on children is very rare. However, children need to be taken for regular health check-ups so that they can promptly detect signs and symptoms of poisoning with anti-TB drugs. The mother should take the medicine after breastfeeding and in the next feeding (after taking the medicine), give the baby a bottle.
Note, breast-feeding should not be done when both mother and baby are being treated with anti-tuberculosis drugs. The reason is that a part of anti-TB drugs will be excreted in breast milk, increasing the concentration of anti-TB drugs in the baby's blood, leading to a high risk of drug poisoning.
With the information shared above, pregnant mothers with TB can still continue to breastfeed after giving birth. However, to have good treatment results, the mother should pay attention to follow the instructions and treatment regimen of the doctor and need to avoid spreading the disease to the baby.