To ask for advice on breastfeeding and surgery?

[OvertiredAndUnderwhelmed]

First time poster but long time lurker!

I had my DS 8 months ago and am still breastfeeding. He is weaning so has less now but still only has breast milk for milk feeds.
During pregnancy with him I developed gallstones which have been excruciating and I’ve been waiting on surgery - I’ve found out today I’ve got a pre op next week and then the surgery at the start of Feb.
I’ve been told over the phone I’ll have to follow a low calorie diet for several weeks before but as I’ve just been looking at it online it says that this may be impacted by breastfeeding.

I’m just getting a little worried now about what they will say to me at my pre op - has anyone had this surgery whilst breastfeeding and if so, please can you reassure me or advise me?!

You’ll get a lot of advice to just stop breastfeeding but that obviously isn’t what you want and it’s your choice so please ignore those posters.

Do you express at all and will your baby take a bottle happily? Definitely discuss this with your medical team and explain that you wish to continue breastfeeding - they should be able to factor that into your diet.

I didn’t have this surgery during breastfeeding but I did have surgery where I had to take time off from feeding. My DS was slightly younger and so was EBF. I had managed to build up a freezer stash so he had that and I used a breast pump to keep my supply up and just disposed of the milk.

Good luck

I know someone who did. She requested to be first on the list of the day so we could be up and able to breast feed sooner.

In terms of the GA I had emergency surgery when DD2 was an hour old and I was able to feed her again as soon as I was conscious enough to hold her.

Is it the surgery day you are worried about or the low calorie diet after in terms of the impact on BFing?
For the surgery try not to stress, if you’re going back to work baby will be in nursery soon anyway and will be about 9 months by the OP. Feed just before, leave some pumped milk and whoever is looking after him can just give him solids if he isn’t taking the milk from a bottle.

Im terms of the diet having an impact on your supply, again I wouldn’t worry yet. At the pre OP they will be able to tell you if there are certain foods off limits etc, how to eat the most nutrient dense diet within the parameters. But plenty of women of all shapes and sizes, who eat a range of diets still manage to BF.
I was super skinny by the time I came to stopping but I was still making milk. Yes there’s a chance it may reduce your supply but generally your body prioritises milk production.

Let them know at the pre op about breastfeeding and they should be able to support you in continuing. There is an association of anaesthetists guideline about breastfeeding and anaesthesia - most drugs are fine to breastfeed on, but some need to be avoided so best that your anaesthetist knows.

Not sure about diet but they may just want to make sure you’re getting enough, should be easy enough to adjust.

Just let them know you want to keep breastfeeding and they'll support you x

Thanks for all of the responses - I’m already back at work so do express and he will take a bottle if he has to.
I’m just worried about being told I’ll have to stop feeding or losing my supply - from what I’ve read I’ll have to go on a diet beforehand for two weeks where I can only have 800 calories of yogurt / soup or meal replacement drinks a day!

Build up as much of a stash as you can now and then, even if your supply does go away when you're on the low calorie diet, you can give that to DS. Keep trying to feed whilst on the low calorie diet but there's no stress about the amount because you have a stash. And you can rebuild your supply after the surgery. If you can't build up a sufficient stash by then, you can try to get a donation of breast milk from HMFHB to tide you through the two weeks if you need it.

I'm presuming you're having your gallbladder removed? Are you sure they've sent you the correct information? I've seen patients for other upper gastro surgery needing to have a preop diet of around 800 calories (usually bariatric surgery) but not cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal) patients. Often it's just a low fat diet whilst on the waiting list as it is often the fat in the diet which triggers a flare up.

There is information about breastfeeding and anaesthesia available which says that breastfeeding can be continued. Discuss with your pre-op nurse and inform your anaesthetist on the day.

Check with the breast feeding network on drugs - there are usually always options which will allow you up continue feeding.

Yes to have my gallbladder removed - the two people I’ve spoken to today who have been booking me in for pre op and surgery have both said a low calorie diet and depending on BMI depends how long you have to do it for - nobody else has mentioned it during the referral process so I was quite surprised!

And remember as your baby is eating food, you can add extra calories into the food to make up for if your milk is lower in fat (I'm not sure it will be, more likely it will impact you though. It's worth googling pro breastfeeding orgs to see if there's amended guidelines for breastfeeding women eg more calories per day