Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction Surgery

Breastfeeding after a breast reduction surgery is an option many women think is unavailable. Surgical techniques for breast reduction surgery, however, have improved to the point where more than fifty percent, and possibly as many as eighty percent, of all women who want to breastfeed after breast reduction surgery can do so, depending on surgical technique.

Breast reduction surgery, or "reduction mammaplasty," involves the removal of breast tissue when a woman's breasts are too large or out of proportion with her body. The patient requests a consultation with a plastic surgeon, and when she wishes to breastfeed after breast reduction surgery, the surgeon will explain the techniques used to preserve mammary glands, canals, and tissues.

In many cases, the breast reduction itself looks very different from a breast reduction surgery performed on a patient who does not care about breastfeeding after the surgery. The surgeon will use different incisions, tissue removal procedures, and different scar patterns to give mothers who wish to breastfeed as much of the areolae, mammary glands, and canals she needs to successfully breastfeed a baby.

Diana West's book "Defining Your Own Success: Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction Surgery" has become the definitive breastfeeding guide for women who choose to breastfeed after reduction surgery. In addition, message boards and support groups have cropped up throughout the Internet for women who choose or hope to breastfeed after this procedure.

In some cases, mothers can produce all of their baby's breastfeeding needs. In most cases, however, the baby can get some breastmilk, but requires breastfeeding supplementation with artificial baby milk of some sort. To boost supply, mothers who have breast reductions are urged to avoid peppermint, cabbage, and decongestants, which decrease milk supply, and to eat oatmeal and fenugreek, which increase milk supply. Pumping around the clock every three hours is important for mothers who have had this procedure; maintaining a steady milk supply helps with breastfeeding.

Using a supplemental nursing system, or an SNS, helps women who breastfeed after reduction surgery. This system allows the mother to tape a small tube to her nipple, and to add formula to a small chamber at the top of the tube. As the baby suckles, the baby stimulates the mother's milk supply but also receives the calories the baby needs from the formula.

The success of breastfeeding after breast reduction surgery cannot be minimized, however; for women who wish to give their babies breastmilk, but require breast reduction surgery, knowing that the majority of women can breastfeed after surgery is crucial.