Breastfeeding after gynae surgery

[happyotters]

Hi, I have a prolapse repair operation this month and I am breastfeeding my 21 month old. Just wondering if anyone else has had this surgery or similar and been able to continue breastfeeding afterwards? Or did you decide to stop breastfeeding before the op? It's made more complicated by the fact I won't be able to have her with me when I'm hospital due to Coronavirus so I'll probably have to pump for a couple of days. I'm wondering about painkillers afterwards and how you dealt with that too? Any experiences or advice is very welcome, thank you

I had major surgery when dc was born, and needed a lot of pain killers.

The milk that I pumped when I was on pain killers had to be chucked (70 bottles! - 3 weeks worth) on the advice of my baby’s consultant.

It depends how long you want to feed for. It is doable but you’ll need to build up a stash first and might find that she forgets how to feed if it’s too long? I stopped feeding all mine at that 2ish and I’m not sure they would restart after a break of more than a week.

Do you know how long you’ll be on painkillers for?

Thanks for your reply @peapotter - wow that was some commitment to pump for 3 weeks after major surgery and throw away the milk. Glad you got through it and were able to continue feeding.

I don't know how long I will need painkillers for yet but I'm speaking to a nurse about it on Monday. From what I've read prolapse repair causes more discomfort than pain but we are all different so who knows if it will be like that for me. I know I took paracetamol and ibuprofen after my episiotomy when my dd was born and I was able to continue feeding then, I'm just not sure if I'll need stronger painkillers this time.

Make sure the anaesthetist & surgeon know you’re breastfeeding. No reason not to carry on post op if you want (you just shouldn’t have codeine as part of your post op analgesia). Pump and dump isn’t routinely considered necessary now either. Hope all goes smoothly.

Thanks @Greybeardy I willl definitely let them know before the surgery. Sounds like I should be able to continue feeding then providing I can cope without codeine

I had major gynae surgery last year and was in hospital for 8 days. By the time I came home I was only on paracetamol and ibuprofen, which is fine to feed on but I had had really strong antibiotics. To my amazement I still had milk but it didn’t taste very nice so my DS weaned then. So I would say it’s doable totally and your milk wo t dry up in that short time. You’ll likely be able to reestablish supply without having to pump if you don’t want to.

Thanks everyone. Had the surgery and took my breast pump. All went well and by pumping to keep my supply up I have been able to come home today and feed my daughter. Using a pillow to protect my tummy but otherwise just like before.