Good question. As someone else suggested, I'd keep the surgery out of the decision. Is your baby showing signs of readiness now? Does he sit up good with support? Does he look interested in food when you're eating? Does he try to grab at your food? If he seems ready now, you could always start to introduce solids and see if he's interested. If not, then try again in a week or two. I breastfed my daughter with the BPI. She was well into solids when she had her first surgery though b/c she was 10 months old. If your baby does start solids now, he might not be interested for a few days after surgery, which is fine, just wait until he's ready again. I found with my 2nd baby, he was interested and started solids at about 5 1/2 months old, but at times wasn't interested and would just nurse more.
I was always thankful to be able to breastfeed my daughter after 3 of her 4 surgeries b/c I knew it comforted her. I remember that after primary it was uncomfortable for her to nurse on one side for first day or so though. The hospital had a lactation center with electric breast pumps available for use. When it was hard for my baby to nurse, I had a bottle available for her. I would suggest either bringing or pump from home or even easier, calling the hospital to see if they have a pump available for your use (which they should). The have plastic parts that come in a package that you keep (and can even use again at home if you have a compatible pump). They billed our insurance (for the plastic pump parts) on my baby's account and the insurance covered it for us. Where is he having surgery? Did the dr. give you an estimated time frame of how long to expect the surgery to take? I ask b/c you'll probably want to plan to pump during that time (whenever or however frequently your baby nurses). If your baby ever uses a bottle, bring a couple with you so it's a nipple he's used to. If your baby doesn't ever use a bottle, the hospital can freeze your milk for you while you're there and mabye you can bring a small soft insulated bag to bring the milk home. Even if you never use the milk, at least you won't slow down your milk production b/c you'll be pumping.
BTW, when the baby is admitted to a room after recovery, you can also ask them if there's a pump you can keep in your room (if he's not up to nursing) so that you don't have to leave the room to go pump. TCH was always very accomodating with that for me b/c once my baby was out of surgery I never wanted to leave her side.
If the baby doesn't start solids before surgery, then you can probably give it a try very soon after you get home. You'll be surprised at how quickly he will probably bounce back to himself.
BTW, if the baby hasn't ever tried a bottle and you want to introduce one, there are two kinds of nipples recommended by Lactation Consultants that I know of -- the Avent nipples, or the Evenflow ULTRA ones (if you look at them, they're wider than the regular Evenflow ones). My baby occasionally has a bottle of water and does well with the Evenflow Ultras, but didn't ever do well with the Avent ones.
One more thing I just thought of is when they give you the pre-op instructions, they'll prob. say nothing to eat or drink after midnight. Findout what time your baby will be admitted and what the estimated time is for surgery. Ask if you can breastfeed until 4 or 5 a.m. b/c breastmilk is digested more quickly than anything else and could be considered comparable to clear liquids (apple juice, water, etc.) as far as pre-op instructions are concerned. Sometimes emergency surgeries come up and the surgery time gets delayed and that can be very hard on a little one, so the later you can safely feed the easier the morning wait will be.
I think it's great that you've exclusively breastfed to this point! Good for you! If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to e-mail me at
bpmom@comcast.net.
~Tina (Mom to Nicole, 5 1/2 y.o. w/LBPI & Joshua, 9 1/2 month old, C-Section)