Has anyone had a general anaesthetic while breastfeeding? Advice would be great...

[NoviceKnitter]

Hi, I've got to have a short procedure under GA - will only be in hosp for the day. Different doctors have given conflicting advice about whether it's ok to breastfeed afterwards. Has anyone else been in this situation and what did you do?

i had to either give up or express enough to cover whilst i was in hospital i chose to give up she was 10 months old

Was that just because you were in hospital or because the GA was still in your system? My DD is only 3 months so I hopefully I will carry on even if I have to express for day or two. (luckily only day surgery.)

i was in for 4 days but i know at the time they said it stays in the system for so long i couldnt even have a local at the dentist as they said there was some risk

I was told it would affect breastfeeding - so chose a spinal. It was very odd having to go into theatre conscious - but made things simpler with regards feeding. I would do the same again.

Blimey, really? I've been told 24 hours by one doc, and that there's no prob by another. Hmm, maybe I'll call Breastfeeding Network - they're usually quite good on this stuff. Thanks for the posts.

How does anaesthesia affect breast feeding?
Many drugs given during anaesthesia do go into breast milk. Some of these drugs can have the same effect on the baby as if they were given to the baby, but in smaller doses. Most anaesthetic drugs are out of the body within 16 hours of an anaesthetic, although some drugs remain in very small quantities for up to 5 days. There is also a small incidence of breast milk stopping after an operation. Given this fact it is important you tell your anaesthetist you are breastfeeding so that a suitable anaesthetic technique be chosen. The safest drugs can be chosen, a regional anaesthetic may be an option and other precautions can be taken to decrease the chance of breast milk stopping. What you can do is breast feed or express milk just before having your operation. After the operation if you have had a general anaesthetic you should express milk and discard the first lot. After this time it is likely to be fine to breastfeed. If you are on strong pain killers after your operation then you should be aware that your child may become sleepy from these but is unlikely to come to harm.

just found this on a site for you

buktus, thanks so much, that's really kind.

I had an op 8 weeks ago which originally was going to be minor daycase surgery. The surgeon and anaesthetist said it was fine to breastfeed afterwards

BUT I woke up and they'd had to do major surgery instead and I'd been given too much morphine to safely breastfeed so I carried on expressing and chucked it down the sink. I'd stored enough in the freezer for about 48 hours so was ok.

Meant to add that after about 16 hours I was back to breastfeeding/expressing and storing with no problems

I had a GA when DS3 was 4 days old and carried on feeding him as normal. No-one even mentioned any breastfeeding issues!

Great, thanks.

Blimey, I'm glad I didn't know all that before. I had a (very minor) op under a general anaesthetic when I was still bfing. I told the anaesthetist that I was bf and she said it would be fine. When I came round I was then told I couldn't bf for 24 hours. Huge panic, 5 month old had never even been give breast milk in a bottle. The nurse saw my horrified reaction and rang the maternity unit, who said it would be fine as c-sections were sometimes performed under a general. I didn't express and discard first lot of milk, (it wasn't even suggested to me)and dd2 was absolutely fine.. not in the slightest bit sleepy (sadly).