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Home › Articles › Issues for Mom › Post-Surgical Lactation

Post-Surgical Lactation

Can You Breastfeed After Breast Reduction Surgery?

By Gwen Morrison

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When asked whether it is possible to breastfeed after breast reduction surgery, most people will automatically answer, "Probably not." This is not a true assumption, says Diana West, BA, LLL, and author of Defining Your Own Success: Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction Surgery.

"Many women who have had breast reduction surgery do not even consider breastfeeding but rather bottle-feed their babies from birth onward," she says. "Other women who have had breast reductions try to breastfeed but are ultimately unable to, perhaps because the surgical damage was too severe, but very often it is simply that these women lacked adequate information and support."

Anything Is Possible
With the current advances in surgical techniques for reduction mammoplasty, surgeons are increasingly able to preserve milk-producing tissue so that it is possible for some women to breastfeed after surgery. West, who is the executive director and founder of BFAR, a non-profit organization that provides information and support to women who wish to breastfeed after a reduction, points out that the techniques that have resulted in the most milk production are those in which the nipple was not completely severed, even thought it may have been moved.

"Fortunately, most BFAR (breastfeeding after reduction) mothers can produce some amount of milk," says West. "Any amount they are unable to produce can be supplemented at the breast using an at-breast supplementer. A mother does not require a full milk supply to feed her baby at the breast."

Karen Poulin from Manchester, Conn., remembers those early days after her baby was born. "When I was 23 years old, I had breast reduction surgery," she says. "At the time, my surgeon said there was a 50/50 chance of breastfeeding. I thought it wouldn't matter – who knew what the future held anyway. I never gave it another thought until I was due to have my first child."

Poulin says that her first attempt at nursing is still a total blur. Her baby was having trouble latching onto her breast. "When properly latched, he wouldn't suck well," she says. "When poorly latched, he'd suck like a champ."

Worried about how much nourishment she was providing her baby, Poulin nursed with a supplemental nursing system (SNS). "For about four weeks, I'd nurse with the SNS, pump from the side Samuel didn't nurse from and then clean the SNS and pump parts," she says. "It was a vicious cycle. The good news is that after the first four weeks I was able to ditch the SNS and nurse bare."

According to West, many women believe that it's impossible to breastfeed after reduction surgery in part because of misinformation provided to them by their surgeon or physician. In order to provide a place for women to go for help, West co-founded a resource center for women to learn more about breastfeeding after reduction surgery. She has worked with hundreds of breastfeeding mothers in her capacity as a La Leche League

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