Hi!
Had anyone had surgery (put under anesthetic) while breastfeeding?
I have to have surgery soon (knee) and will be under anesthetic, the doctor wasn't sure what I will need to do in terms of breast milk/breastfeeding, said to ask my family doc, and I will!
But the nurse said later on in the appt it may dry up my supply, what?
I figure I will have to pump and dump for a day or two, but I really hope it won't dry me up!
Any experience or thoughts?
pomegranate / 3411 posts
um, i never heard of it drying it up your supply!
I had a day surgery when LO was 15 months - so at that point i was breastfeeding 2 - 3 times per day. My surgery was super early in the morning, so I nursed him before I left, had the anesthetic maybe at 7am and nursed him before bed that night around 12 hours later. I had basically been told that 12-24 hours later was okay to nurse again so i didn't bother with pumping and dumping. I am not sure how often you nurse or what time of day your surgery is, but i would say you don't have to worry about holding off on nursing for longer than a day max.
ETA: Thinking about it some more, i actually felt okay to nurse the same day also because i remember a lot of what i read said it was safe to nurse once you are feeling alert,...i think i might have skipped one session if my surgery hadn't been so early in the morning, but what i read online was that the drugs are negligible in the breastmilk. here is what kellymom says:
http://kellymom.com/bf/can-i-breastfeed/illness-surgery/mom-surgery/
pomegranate / 3917 posts
@californiadreams: I thought it drying me up was a little extreme!
He is just over 3w now, so nursing 8x or so a day. I don't know when surgery will be, if I go regular schedule they can't do me til fall, I am on standby, so it could be tomorrow, or another month and I won't get to be picky on time of day, time to start building a stash for this, but I am not opposed to FF if need be if I can't stash enough (hopefully he's not opposed, lol).
GOLD / pomegranate / 3688 posts
This is something you need to discuss with the anesthesiologist... there are several different types of anesthesia you can get depending on the type of surgery, how long you will be out, etc. - and all have different pump and dump lengths associated with them. I had a D&C around 6 months PP and had "walking anesthesia" - I don't remember anything about the procedure, but I was technically awake. I was allowed to BF as soon as I got home (about 2 hours after surgery).
pomegranate / 3411 posts
i think you are set then! if you have some BM pre-pumped and formula, than all you have to do is a pump and dump a couple of times to keep your supply up throughout the day post-surgery - as i imagine at 3 weeks, your supply is still being established.
Maybe your nurse exaggerated the idea that so early post partum, the lack of nursing for more than a day can affect your supply. I wasn't worried about that at 15 months, but i would be at 3 weeks,
the only thing I was more concerned about was pain meds. My surgery doctor asked me what paid meds i prefer and i said anything that is safe for breastfeeding - he laughed and said none of them were. So I told him that after my c section, I used Tylenol and advil and he laughed even more and said that this would be a walk in the park compared to c-section! haha, so i did it again and just took Tylenol and advil when i had pain after the surgery and i was fine after a few days.
eggplant / 11408 posts
@Beebug: talk to @Dandelion! She just had surgery and is BFing! Good luck, lady 
apricot / 498 posts
You can call lactmed to get resources to provide to your anesthesiologist and work this out. You also won't need to pump/dump in most situations. Usually you are encouraged to bring the baby and latch on quickly. It will help with supply. If it were me I would stretch out the surgery as long as you can just until your supply is well established. But lactmed and kellymom.com are the best resources.
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