breastfeeding after knee surgery

carrielee99

Have any of you had surgery during the time you were breastfeeding? I plan to breastfeed my baby who's due in July, and I will have to have surgery before the end of the year on my knee. I will be "put to sleep" and wondered if you have to wait any amount of time to start breastfeeding again. I read on the internet that some general anesthetics pass into breast milk, but they have not been reported to cause problems in nursing babies whose mothers were given the drugs. I just wondered if anyone has gone through this.

b15chik

i'm having surgery 5 days after i deliver. they told me to pump for 24 hours after and dump.

jamira

  

Breastfeeding when mom has surgery

Compiled by Kelly Bonyata, IBCLC

General anesthesia should not affect breastfeeding. You can safely nurse once you are awake and alert enough to hold your baby. By that time, the amount of medication in your bloodstream is low enough that the amounts in your milk would not be significant. The point at which you wake up after general anesthesia is the point where enough of the drug has left your system that it no longer has an effect. In addition, pediatric surgeries require anesthesia - and that is a more serious exposure than through mom's milk. Mom might want to nurse just before the procedure in case she's out for a while or too groggy to function normally for a bit. See the articles and references below for more detailed information.

https://www.kellymom.com/health/illness/mom-surgery.html

b15chik

...then i guess i need to double check on that with the anesthesia people. thanks for the article!

i was very worried about not being able to bf that day, and wasn't really looking forward to giving him a bottle that early

b15chik

looked around a little bit, it seems it can depend on what kind of anesthesia they're using. propofol is one that a study was done on, that said a very very tiny amount was in the breast milk and it was ok to breastfeed after.