I'll bet most of LCs on this net have "been there, done that" in
having to endure the ill-informed advice of surgeons that a
lactating woman wean prior to surgery. I have approached
surgeons in give-the-benefit-of-the-doubt mode (aka: working
with informationally impaired). Two reasons are most
commonly given by surgeons to defend their advice: (1) they
assume there is increased risk of infection because of milk
leaking into incision (2) milk-filled breasts make surgery
messy. These are pretty easy arguements to address. Logic
can prevail. If mastitis is treated with antibiotics, then
post-surgical infection can also be treated. There is no
getting away from the messy milk, but blood is messy too,
right? (Depending on the surgeon, you can delve into the
antimicrobial and other properties of human milk that may
work to prevent site infection.)

I agree that Dr. Love's book is a good source (primarily
because it is advice written by a surgeon). And, you can
have a laugh reading how little this eminent breast specialist
understands about lactation. (At least she advises nursing
mothers to contact LLLI.)  She does not advise weaning prior
to breast surgery. There is good advice in LLLI book,
Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (reassuring for moms to read
the personal stories). There are other good articles that I
don't have on hand this morning--perhaps other Lacnetters
will provide references.

Breastfeeding-friendly surgeons have the mother nurse and/or
pump as close to the procedure as possible. Then,
afterwards, baby can nurse--with care given to protect the
incision site. Sometimes leaking occurs at the site.

And, ****DUH Award Winner**** weaning for 1 week prior to
surgery would not "dry up" the breast. It would only make the
toddler miserable and the mother more anxious.

Margery Wilson, IBCLC
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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