BFAR ~ Breast Feeding After Reduction

I posted a while ago about my breast reduction surgery, in which I briefly discussed breast feeding after reduction (aka BFAR). I've been reading a book entitled "Defining your own success: Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction Surgery", by Diana West. It's definitely not a page turner or an exciting read, some parts of it actually piss me off.

What I have found interesting about it is the explanation of how the breasts work to produce milk and transport it from the ducts/glands to your baby; something I'm sure most breast feeding books discuss. One thing that I absolutely can not stand in this book is the brow-beating about how you "must breastfeed".

Matt and I have pretty much decided that if I can breast feed, GREAT!, if I can't then we'll do formula. Both of us feel like there is absolutely nothing to be gained if both baby and I are miserable and struggling with breastfeeding (of course there is going to be the issue of my MIL - but Matt already has said he'll deal with her).

In this book there are stories of different women, some who have successfully exclusively breastfed their children, and some of woman who put themselves through torture for months, just so that they could feed their baby minuscule (some of them could only get a 1/2 oz) amounts of breast milk.

The book recommends hooking yourself up to a pump for hours on end, to stimulate and increase your supply...which is all well and good, but if there's only so many ducts/glands that are working and attached, there's only going to be so much milk, no matter how much you pump...never mind the fact that your nipples are being constantly sucked (either by baby or machine) and if you're hooked up to a pump for 20 hours a day, when do you get anything else gone?!

Have I learned a lot so far from this book: Yes. Have they somewhat offended me, that if I don't torture myself to breastfeed that I'm a bad mother: Yes. I understand and appreciate all of the benefits to breastfeeding, but if I can't, I can't, that's the bottom line.

That being said: All of my pregnancy books were going on and on about expressing colostrum any time after 16 weeks. That wasn't happening for me. The other night (here's the TMI) I was getting ready to take a shower and thought I'd give it a squeeze....low and behold a few drops of colostrum came right out...and surprisingly it was from my right breast on which I had surgery twice. I tried the left and got some too, but not as much. Again, we'll just have to wait and see...