WLS while breastfeeding

You shouldn't bf on pain meds. You will definitely be on meds for at least 10 days and your stomach will be very very sore. I can't imagine having a squirming baby laying on my stomach that was just opened and rearranged.

Mandy,

I’m somewhat hesitant to post for fear of judgment, but I wanted to let you know that it has been done before!

This isn’t advice for what you should do (as I think you should do your own research and come to your own conclusions), but here’s what I did. It wasn’t easy, and I admit that without the support I had from my family, I probably couldn’t have made it work.

I had my band to DS revision when my son was 9 months. Ideally, I would have waited until he was 12 months. I was having problems with my band, and my surgeon’s office originally told me to let them know when I was ready to wean and they would schedule me for surgery. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to wean quickly, so I consulted with a local lactation consultant who also put me in contact with another lactation consultant more familiar with working with WLS patients. When I told my surgeon that I had consulted with an LC and what our thoughts were, we decided to proceed with my revision. The reality is that surgeons are surgeons and don’t necessarily know that much about lactating. As others have mentioned, my concerns included staying hydrated, nutritional stores, maintaining supply while recovering from surgery, and the potential for the releasing of toxins from fat stores.

The research I found showed that even women who are malnourished (not that DSers are) can provide adequate breastmilk for their children. The body takes from the nutritional stores of the mother. This has helped motivate me to stay on top of my vitamins/labwork so that I remain healthy. I was also very fortunate that I had no trouble getting in liquids, and I started doing multiple protein shakes a day early on post surgery.

I got a copy of Thomas Hale’s book Medication and Mother’s Milk. There’s also a hotline you can call with questions about what meds are safe. This book lists medications that their risk level so you can take or not take medications based on what level of risk you are comfortable with. Plenty of moms nurse post C-sections and are on painkillers, so that alone isn’t a reason not to nurse. You just have to make sure that the ones you take are safe. I also made my anesthesiologist aware I was nursing and was told to pump and dump for 24 hours post-surgery.

Since I knew my surgery was pending, I spent months building a stash of frozen breastmilk. While I theoretically could have nursed in the hospital, I didn’t feel up to it and my son had thawed breastmilk the entire time I was in the hospital. He didn’t have any problems taking a bottle since he was used to it from daycare, and he had no problems latching after using bottles. In the hospital, I continued to pump around the clock with a hospital grade pump to try to keep my supply going since he wasn’t nursing. I find it hard to sleep in the hospital anyway with all the people coming in and out of the room, so when I got woken up in the middle of the night, I pumped. When I returned home, I resumed nursing and supplemented with frozen breastmilk if I didn’t feel up to nursing for some reason (although I don’t remember it happening often). Initially, my partner would lift my son to bring him to me, and lift him to switch sides.

However, post-surgery my pumping ability (and probably supply overall) did take a hit. When I returned to work, I was no longer able to pump as much as he drank at daycare. So, I supplemented from my frozen stash while he was at daycare (for whatever amount I couldn’t pump) and breastfeed whenever he was with me.  My extra freezer supply was gone at about 11.5 months, so with his doctor’s approval, we started supplementing whatever I couldn’t pump with a few ounces of cow’s milk a day.

As you can see, I put a lot of thought, research, and planning in place to make it work, and I had a lot of support. I also knew it was possible it wouldn’t work. So, I’d recommend researching formula options (or donor milk if that’s something you’d consider) so that you’ll have a back up plan in case you have complications or it just doesn’t work for whatever reason. Overall, I’m currently glad that I at least tried to make it work. My son is 18 months now and still LOVES nursing.

Good luck with whatever path you choose to take!

 I disagree with the comments that you cannot take any heavy-duty pain meds while breastfeeding.  I was prescribed Percocet after both my c-sections and I breastfed exclusively with both my babies from the get-go with the blessings of every OB and pediatrician we encountered.  Anesthesia drugs are another story, but generally it's considered safe enough to nurse once a mother is completely sobered up from them.

But my advice is to either wean your baby or postpone your surgery until you are ready to wean.  One comfort nursing session a day might work out, but it might be the thing that pushes you over the edge into severe dehydration, and it's no picnic to wind up in the ER in the middle of the night getting a few bags of fluids when you'd rather be chilling watching Netflix and recovering at home.  You'll also have a very difficult time holding your child initially.  You'll be able to snuggle up next to each other and maybe nurse laying down, but that will put her little knees and feet right in front of your incision.  I'm currently nursing my 9-month-old and I get kicked in the belly and lower abdomen all the time when he's eating laying down.  This would be EXCRUCIATING right after surgery.  

I felt like a dirty old wet dishrag for several weeks after my DS.  I needed a lot of help and nursing would have been just too much, even once a day.