Welcome, Carnival of Breastfeeding readers!  This post has been re-published.

This post is for women, so dudes, look away.  If you (a male) keep reading, you might feel awkward.  So, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Anyway, this has been something that has been on my mind for a long time.  I have debated about whether or not to broadcast it to the Internet.  But I have decided that when I was first dealing with this, I desperately wanted support and to be able to find answers on the Internet.  So, here you go. . .

In December of 2005, I had a reduction mammoplasty, aka breast reduction  (or as my husband coined it “O.B.C.- Operation Booby Cut).  When I started having pre-op consultations as a teenager, the doctors told me the chances of breastfeeding could be 50/50.  And now that I’m looking back on it now, they probably didn’t even know because they don’t keep up with their patients after the six month post op appointment.  Anyway, at the time, I didn’t care whether or not I’d be able to nurse because I just wanted to be done with the physical pain and embarrassment and be able to play sports again (although none of these occurred because the doctor didn’t take out enough. . . but that’s a completely different story).

When I got pregnant in 2007, I knew I wanted to nurse.  I had done extensive research on nursing and knew it would be by far the best thing I could give my child.  All the doctors (OB, Pedi, and Family Docs) I talked to said I probably wouldn’t be able to nurse– that their patients weren’t.  Even a lactation consultant (who I absolutely adore!) says she can count on one hand women who have been successful with bfaring.  There’s actually one from the hospital who’s successful now (Hi, L.).

So, I started searching online for some information about breastfeeding after you’ve had a reduction.  There wasn’t much to be found.  But I seriously thank God everyday that I found this website: www.bfar.org.  BFAR = Breastfeeding after Reduction.

If you read my blog, you know how I hate to spend money, so when I saw that this book, written by the creator of the above website) cost $25-$40, I almost didn’t buy it.  I’m a bargain shopper, so luckily I found it for about half that price (I can’t find the link now, but if you need/want this book, let me know, and I’ll try to find it for you for cheap).  Best thing I ever did (well, one of them.)!  It’s 328 pages about breastfeeding after breast reduction surgery– compared to the 1-2 pages I could find in other breastfeeding books.

Even after reading it, I didn’t think I’d be able to exclusively breastfeed because I don’t think any of the personal stories in the book were able to do so (but, they’re doing awesome things for their babies).  Well, I praise God that I am able to.  And I’m not saying this has been easy.  It most certainly has been a very difficult process, which I’d be happy to share with you if you contact me.

Anyway, I decided to write this post because a lady in my breastfeeding support group from the hospital came up to me and said, “You’re my inspiration.  Every time things are hard with nursing, I think of the lady from class who had the reduction and is still persevering, so I know I can, too.”  Wow!  Totally made my day.  And I thought if I could help a non BFAR woman, then, I for sure wanted to help a future BFAR momma.

If I get much feedback from this post, I’ll do a follow up one.  And feel free to leave a comment with any questions or simply your email address if you’d like more information about bfaring.

See Part II here.

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