Surgery May Interfere with Breastfeeding... Advice?

A couple of pieces of information that might help - talk with your doctor about your plan to continue nursing and enlist his or her support in doing so. Some doctors will recommend weaning before a surgery based on outdated information. According to La Leche League's Breastfeeding Answer Book (3rd Rev Ed), drugs used for general anesthesia do not remain in your system or affect your milk. You can breastfeed immediately before your surgery and as soon as you are alert enough to handle your baby. Dr. Thomas Hale's book, "Medications & Mother's Milk" offers extensive information about the compatibility of medications with breastfeeding. I hope this helps. J., a Little Rock LLL Leader

A., I would definitly ask your DR. if there are any medications that could interfere with breastfeeding. If you do have to stop breastfeeding so your baby doesn't get anything in the milk , maybe try pumping your milk and dumping until you can go back to brestfeeding. And if you do this, try to pump at least every 2 to 3 hours or 5 to 8 times a day to keep your milk supply up. I hope so much that this helps. A. J.

I would definitely ask your doctor, but I'm pretty sure you should be able to at least pump and dump while you are on any of the medications. You may have to formula feed your baby while you do that, but the pumping should keep up your supply. Also, there are pain meds that are ok to use while breastfeeding, so you could request those. I would think anything else would only be a few days of actually not nursing though.

A., you don't have to quit. I just had 2 kidney stone surgeries within the last month in which I was knock out for both. They just told me to pump and dump the milk. Hope you can do the same

Have you thought about pumping? I am actually pumping once or twice a day right now for keeping up my milk and having extra in the fridge or freezer. The only thing is my little one doesn't like the bottle nearly as much as the breast but at least he is getting breast milk instead of formula AND you can keep up your milk supply so you can continue to feed after you're all healed. hope it helps and good luck!

I hope you have better luck than I did. I had to have surgery when my son was six months old and had nursed exclusively to that point. I pumped for the feedings around the surgery, but my milk was never quite the same after the surgery so I began supplementing with formula soon after the surgery.

Gallbladder surgery often doesn't involve a lot of post-op pain. Mine didn't. If you're able to do without pain meds, then you shouldn't have to stop breast-feeding.

If it were me, I'd pump and freeze as much milk as I could before the surgery. That way, if you do need pain meds afeter, your baby will still have have breast milk. While you're on pain meds, keep pumping to keep your supply up, but throw out the milk, since it will be contaminated with pain meds. As soon as you can do without them, go back to breast-feeding.

You can still breastfeed after surgery. There is information on this available on one of my favorite websites askdrsears.com. There is a link specifically about breastfeeding after surgery. Hope it helps!

So many surgeries these days are one-day, outpatient procedures, and I think Gall stones falls into that category. If you are going to be separated from your baby for a couple of days, you can begin pumping and storing extra milk now for him to be fed by other family members. Then when you are at the hospital, you can pump as well, if for no other reason than to relieve pressure and prevent engorgement. Check with your Dr. about the anesthesia they will be using and ask if there is any reason this would contaminate your breastmilk. If yes, then you may have to "pump and dump" for a couple of days before resuming breastfeeding. But overall I don't see any reason why this should force you to stop. Keep up the good work!!

Well the only advice I give u is u can use a pump to pump your milk and but it in bottles while having the surgery and then after then surgery you can go back to breast feeding I had a friend who had to do it and it work just fine for her. I hope this helps you.

Talk to your doctor and a LaLeche Leader to make sure any medications are safe. Then you should be able to pump in preparation for the short time you might not be able to nurse. Keep up the pumping (dumping medicated milk) to keep your supply up. Once your system clears of the meds, you should be able to resume a nursing relationship with your son. Most doctors will work with this situation to help shorten your non-direct nursing time. Best of luck.