Lactnet friends,

Although this is anecdotal, 12 years ago, my daughter had open heart
surgery at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia for a complete AV canal.
I was "allowed" to nurse her up to two hours before surgery and
immediately after she was extubated, even with pressure catheters, foley
catheters, several arterial lines, etc.  It was a production, and scary
for me, a pediatric nurse, but definitely worth the fuss. She eagerly
latched, on nursed like a champ (she was 10weeks old) and dropped off to
a sound sleep, not agitated like she had been on the ventilator.  Pretty
rewarding to me, and, I suspect, to her as well.

Undescended testicle surgery is a "no big deal" kind of surgery except,
of course to the mom and baby concerned.  What I mean is, the level of
anesthesia is lighter than longer surgeries, and the baby should be able
to nurse as soon as he is conscious and able to take fluids.  Sorry I
don't have citations.  Many times, just asking the reasoning behind the
8 hour no breastfeeding rule and stating the moms desire to nurse may do
the trick.  When a person doesn't have a leg to stand on research wise,
he/she is likely to back off a hard position, if (and this is a big if),
they are a reasonable person.

Hope this helps.  Mary Alice Tinari, MSN, IBCLC (whose 12 year old
daughter described above is a lovely, intelligent, funny and kind 7th
grader) :-)