Becoming a Mother with Implants
In today’s Miami Herald, Dr. Carlos Wolf says that “Implants shouldn’t affect your ability to breast-feed.”
Yeah, yeah. My doctor said the same thing to me and I could not breast feed. How can this supposedly responsible medical professional make the statement that the questioner WILL NOT have a problem? How does he know? Has he examined this woman? Is she is patient? Does he have the miracle guarantee that she will absolutely NOT have issues?
I love that he is a facial plastic surgeon… He must be an expert on women’s breasts, right?
This poor woman is 27 and she will trust Dr. Wolf’s advice. SO sad to me.
When I got my implants, my doctor said there was a very small chance I might have trouble breastfeeding, not that I wouldn’t be able to at all. Which was the case. He said the biggest problem might be less sensation. I didn’t even want kids at the time, let alone breast-feed them, so what did I care about a little lost sensation?
Well, I thought back on this after my daughter was born and was starving. The doctor said it was all in my head. The pediatrician declared I could breast feed while grabbing my breast and squeezing it while I wrenched in pain. The lactation specialist said I needed a pump, but even that could not pull the milk from my implanted breasts. And my husband said I needed to relax and that my guilt over the implants was the problem.
All the while my daughter was starving and I felt like damaged goods. What good was I that I couldn’t even feed my own baby girl? That was a horrible part of becoming a mother: To experience failure so early in her life, to know I made a horrible choice that affected my baby and our future. Guilt? Yes, hell yes.
Several years ago, I was a breastfeeding peer counsellor. It’s just amazing how complicated this supposedly effortless, natural process can be…
My hazy memory was that (all other things equal) one’s ability to breastfeed with implants depended on how they had been inserted. Some procedures cut through the milk ducts, which, obviously, would make it harder to breastfeed.
I hope your daughter is thriving, now…
Comment by lili — July 25, 2007 @ 10:41 am
Maybe LaLeche League knows something. They don’t want breast milk from women with implants.
Comment by Sybil — July 25, 2007 @ 8:23 pm
If women had any idea of how they will feel should their child become sick as a result of breast implants, they would never consider them. Problems range from rashes, to digestive problems, muscle/joint pain to deformed extremeties, scleroderma, cognitive and mental disorders. Life for these children can be a living nightmare.
The FDA has hundreds of MedWatch reports describing the problems children are having . . . Still, they allow these toxic devices to stay on the market.
One can only wonder why? . . . They wouldn’t put women and children’s life in danger for money, would they?
Rogene
Comment by Rogene — July 25, 2007 @ 11:27 pm
Thanks Lili and Rogene fo ryou great coments. I really hope women can get some REAL information from women’s personal experiences here!
Comment by Mary — July 30, 2007 @ 11:18 am
[…] bigger (no pun intended) cause to worry is that she just had a baby. Is she breast-feeding? We all know the jury is still out on breastfeeding with implants, silicone crossing into […]
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