Breast reduction

Kimberly - posted on 10/26/2009

I had a breast reduction surgery 18 years before I had my son, who is now a year and a half and still breastfeeding. When I was pregnant with him I was distraught because the surgeon who had done my surgery (I also had mine done when I was 19 and I was so far from thinking about having children I didn't care...) told me I'd never be able to breastfeed. Oh, what they don't know!

You'll find a LOT of helpful advice and information on the Kelly Mom website already posted, but also on the Breastfeeding After Reduction group's site. http://bfar.org/ You can join the forums and chat with other women who've gone through EXACTLY what you have. I found it an incredible resource when I was pregnant, as it gave me the confidence to even TRY breastfeeding when my son was born. How it worked out for me was that I rented a hospital grade breast pump the day I went home from the hospital. After every nursing, I would put the baby down or have my husband hold him while I pumped both breasts for 15 to 20 minutes. This tells your breasts the baby wants more milk. (It's tricking your body...) At first I got so little milk when pumping I was very frustrated. But I kept it up for about 3 months. I also would let my son latch on as often and for as long as he ever wanted. Some days if he was feeling snuggly, I'd have him in the baby sling and he'd be on and off the breast for an hour or two! But that's good and tells your body to make more milk. We did have to supplement each of his feedings for his first 2 months of life with an ounce or so of formula (ick) at each feeding, but eventually my body got the message and I was making all the milk he needed. He was also a large baby (over 10 pounds at birth) and so we started him on solid foods at about 5 1/2 months (homemade vegetable and then fruit purees) but he has continued to breastfeed even now that I'm pregnant with another baby due in December. I suppose I will be tandem feeding, since my older child shows no interest in weaning (but he is down to one or two nursings per day is all...) but I'll give the newborn first dibs always, of course. I'm hoping this time I'll be making plenty of milk (the tandem feeding will help this as well, to trick my body to make more, more, more) and so we won't need to supplement with any "fake" milk. Good luck to you and feel free to message me if you'd like to chat more! When I was pregnant I found one other woman online who'd experienced what I had (breast reduction surgery) and it was such a relief to chat with someone else about it all. :) PS - To keep your milk supply up, you may also want to look into galactagogues. These are supplements which help increase your milk supply. For me, I took a LOT of Fenugreek and ate a LOT of oatmeal. I've also heard that blessed thistle or something like that works, but I did not use that...

Akisha - posted on 10/25/2009

awwwww....thanks a million really !!!!!

Kathy - posted on 10/25/2009

Here is some information directly about breastfeeding after breast surgery.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mom/...



i've never had breast surgery before to give you one on one advice. But, I am here if you need any support.





Check out this website: http://www.kellymom.com



It is full of breastfeeding information- pretty much everything you need to know or your afraid to ask is on this website!



Here are a few articles about increasing milk supply!

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/low-su...

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/pumpi...

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitami...