So who has gotten pregnant soon after BR surgery? How did your pregnancy affect the outcome of the surgery? Did having a baby soon after the surgery make it easier or harder to breast feed do you think?

Ok, my Dr advised waiting 4-6 weeks after surgery to actively begin TTC. Also said that about 1/2 pf women who have the BR surgery will be unable to breastfeed which is average anyway b/c 1/2 of all women who attempt breastfeeding are unable to fully breastfeed for any given reason. Just thought it was interesting as I'd not heard that before. Besides, someone's got to have a convo with me, even if its just myself right??

They all say "half of women can bf after reduction" but personally I think that figure is made up; it hasn't changed since my surgery in 1991 and we know surgical techniques are a lot different now than they were then. No matter what, you will be able to feed your baby at the breast even if you make virtually no milk, because you can use an ABS (At Breast Supplementer) like a LactAid or SNS.
The theory is that the longer you wait after reduction surgery, the better off you'll be as far as milk-making. But for me, my surgery was over 15 years ago and I have less of a supply than other moms on this board whose surgery was more recent.
If you haven't had surgery yet, and you know you want a baby and want to bf, why are you getting the surgery? Your breasts will change dramatically from pregnancy and nursing. IMO, better to wait until after you're done having babies to get a reduction. I am being so blunt because I wish someone had said this to me prior to my surgery.

My surgeon wanted me to do pre- and post-surgery mammograms to map out the scar tissue for later. I had the second mammo about 9 months after the surgery and started TTC not long after that.

My breasts have continued to grow with each pregnancy. I'm back to my college size and still growing.

The 50-50 chance line they give us is a load of hooey. They tell us that either we will or we won't be able to breast feed, but don't tell us that almost every post-surgery woman has difficulty making enough milk without help. They also don't tell us that having an inadequate supply doesn't mean we can't still BF in some form. IMO 100% of women can BFAR, it's just a matter of what steps you need to take to maximize your supply and keep baby at the breast.

I just want to second this. I went ahead and had my surgery because I knew I couldn't live with my breasts as-is for the several years I was planning to wait before I had kids. If I had been planning on getting pregnant sooner, I wouldn't have done it. BFAR isn't a picnic, although it's certainly possible, and better than not BFing at all. If you can wait, I'd wait.

I have 3 kids already. The first I was unable to breastfeed after 5months- I know faulty dr's advice but that's what happened. The second breastfed up to 15 months and self weaned just 2 weeks before the third was born. I weaned the 3rd off the breast and onto a bottle a month ago in preparation for my reduction surgery. I know the statistics of not being able to fully breastfeed after the surgery but I could not live with my breasts any longer. I couldn't even buy bras big enough and I was in a KKK cup. I had the surgery 10 days ago and had over 3lbs of tissue removed per breast. I know that I want more kids and we actually gave up TTA this month. I know that I could go up in size with each future pregnancy. I could end up having a repeat reduction in 20 yrs. Call me crazy and selfish but I'd rather have the surgery now and do my best to breastfeed and have to supplement with bottles than have to keep living with the huge breasts I had. After all, all 3 of my kiddos so far have had some bottles- whether ebm or formula- and I'm not so opposed to giving a bottle anyway, I mean, really I'm feeding my baby either way. Sure I'll do my best to breastfeed but the world won't end if I have to supplement or even have to bottlefeed completely. Anyway. Maybe I'm just too idealistic about how I'll feel later on.

When you are back in a year or so with your first BFAR babe, we will all support you 100%. I remember when you first came looking for info, our stories are very similar. There were many times nursing my first BFAR babe when I wished my surgery hadn't been necessary, but I never regretted going ahead with it when I did. It really was necessary for me, as it sounds like yours was.

Many of the women here feel compelled to properly warn those for whom it's not "too late," but that doesn't mean they won't support you after.

Agreed. And I would NEVER call you selfish -- I made the same decision, after all.

Yes, well said!
Hope your recovery is going well, Faithfor12.

:yeahthat:

my sugeon didn't tell me anything about bfar. it was my PCP that told me it would be possible and is what first got me looking into it (I had always planned to do it after having kids since I had heard there was no way to bf if you did it first). We hadnt planned on having kids for a few years, and then I thought that by the time they weaned my husband would have diffrent insurence and I didn't know if it would cover it. If I could do it again I woudln't (and I wish I had had better acess to the info I have acess to now being bfar then I did pre-surgery so I could have made a more informed decision). But I wasn't terribly huge either. just 34DD or F or so. but I am not a huge person and only weighed about 125 at the time.

anyway what ended up happening is I had the surgery in August of 04, then we got pregnant in may 05 and our first was born in feb 06. she was supplemented from 4 days until 11 months when she refused formula (presumably because she had discovered solids). at almost 3 she still nurses once a day or so. The most she was ever supplemented in one day was 12oz.

I have heard that about 97% of ALL women can breastfeed. The ones who don't is useually because of inadequate support. Frankly I think a lot of people jump to supplementing too quick because they worry about the baby eating enough and it eventually kills thier supply.