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Monday, September 18, 2006

Breast Reductions and Breast Feeding

I just thought I would share some info I found out a couple months ago, when I had my second son, on breast reductions and breastfeeding. When I had my breast reduction I was told that there was a good chance I would be able to breastfeed. My doctor had patients who were able to successfully do it and like I said in a previous post the woman in the room next to me in the hospital had had a breast reduction and she had successfully breastfeed two kids and had her third child latched right onto her. So why is it then that some women who've had breast reductions can breast feed and some can't?

The lactation consultant I saw with my second son said it's because women only use 60% of their mammary tissue to breastfeed. That's women who haven't had breast reductions just to be clear. That means 40% of the mammary tissue isn’t used. This tissue looks the same as the tissue that is used. For some women who have breast reduction surgery the tissue that is removed just happens to be that 40% that was not going to be used anyway, or of that 40% depending on how big they were before the surgery that wasn't going to be used anyway. Thus, the 60% that makes milk is left untouched and they can produce a full milk supply despite having breast reduction surgery.

A lot of women, myself included, have part of the 60% removed meaning that we can produce milk, but our supply can't keep up with the needs of our babies. Some women have all 60% removed and can't produce any milk at all. Incidentally, mammary tissue can regenerate with each additional pregnancy so it is possible to have better and better success breastfeeding with each pregnancy. It's also much harder to breastfeed, if not impossible depending on the situation, if you've had you’re nipples detached during the surgery.

The lactation consultant told me there are several markers that women who've had breast reductions surgeries and who want to breastfeed have to pass in order to be able to exclusively breastfeed. The first is having the baby latch on (which is the same as for women who haven't had the surgery), the second is the milk coming in, the third is the milk supply at two weeks, and the last is the milk supply at 6 weeks. She said it is very common for a women to be able to exclusively breastfeed for the first 2 weeks, and then when the baby goes through a growth (usually around day 10) to fall short on the milk he needs (ie the baby needs 4 ounces, but the mom can only produce 3 so she needs to give one ounce of formula after breastfeeding.)

A. Elliot's lesson learned: You just won't know about your milk supply until you give birth

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posted by Alex Elliot @ 7:52 PM   1 comments
1 Comments:

  • At 9/25/2006 12:19 AM, Blogger Count Mockula said…

    Dang. I was kind of hoping the signs would be ones I could check right now! As it is, we're still trying to conceive. I had my surgery about 4 1/2 years ago, and I'm really hoping I can breastfeed, but have decided I'll get over it if I can't.

     
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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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