Contrary to what you may believe, breast feeding when you have breast implants is completely safe. In fact, breast implants have absolutely no effect on breast milk at all, and therefore, there is no risk as far as your child’s safety is concerned. If you’ve recently had breast augmentation work done, and you’ve just given birth, you can go ahead and breast feed you baby just as you would otherwise have done. With that said, sometimes things can go wrong with implants, and as such, it’s best that you familiarize yourself with the potential problems.
Incision Related Problems
If your surgeon made the implant incision by cutting around the areola, there is a potential for problems, but only if the wound has not yet had sufficient time to heal. Now, don’t for a minute thing that your baby’s sucking will tear open the wound, because that is not going to happen. Instead, when the incision was made, several important nerves would have been severed, and these need time to recover, or else they won’t be capable of sending a signal to the brain, telling it milk needs to be released. The best way to avoid this problem is by getting implants done well before your expected delivery date. Of course if your surgeon made the incision in the crease under your breast, or in the armpit, then this type of problem cannot arise.
Increased Sensitivity
Breast enlargement invariably causes your nipples and the surrounding areas to become more sensitive. This can cause a certain amount of unpleasantness when your baby sucks, but while it’s painful for some women; most only experience a tickling sensation. Having said that, the exact opposite can also happen on occasions, in which case a certain amount of sensitivity will be lost following breast augmentation work. Increased sensitivity usually go away over a period of time, but it can take several months or even a few years.
Leaking Implants
People have in the past expressed concern over the possibility of saline or silicon leaking into breast milk in the case of a ruptured implant. While such concerns are perfectly understandable, one should also bear in mind that there have been so such incidences documented. Again, there has never even been a single case where silicone or saline has leaked and contaminated breast milk. Additionally, doctors have even gone as far as saying that if implants did leak, and the contents entered into the breast milk, the nursing baby would stand to benefit from the extra nutrients, in that both kinds of implant contain essential minerals.
Breast feeding with implants is perfectly safe, but it is still advisable to get the procedure done well before you intend having your baby. This will at least ensure that breast feeding isn’t uncomfortable for you, and of course it will allow enough time for the nerves to heal so that milk can be supplied to the baby.