Pumping and Dumping

I received a phone call from a woman in New York, who needs to have surgery for a medical condition. She just delivered her baby four weeks ago and is breastfeeding and offering one bottle of mixed formula and breast milk each day. She pumps and isn’t able to get a full feeding from the pump, no matter what she’s tried. She mixes formula with her breast milk and offers it in a bottle when she has to go to doctor’s appointments and will be away from the baby. I guess you’d say, she is 80% breastfeeding, which is remarkable considering her schedule.

For her upcoming surgery, we talked about trying to get ahead and pump more to build up supply, which she feels she just can’t do, because of all the demands on her time: taking care of the baby, breastfeeding and doctor visits. She’s clearly doing the best that she can, and I’m so proud of her. For the day, when she’ll need general anesthesia, we talked about nursing in the morning, then when she gets home, pumping and dumping for the next six hours after anesthesia to be sure that all the medications have left her body. The baby will be drinking formula in the meantime. There’s lots of other considerations, like holding the baby afterwards, but lots of pillows or using My Breast Friend should help.

There are lots of “out of the ordinary experiences” that real moms have all the time. I’d like to hear from other moms who had/have challenges and what advice they would share.