Can I breast feed after a breast reduction?

Question:

I’m 27, from Atlanta, and I have overly large breasts which often cause me discomfort. I want a breast reduction, but I’m also hoping to get pregnant soon. If I get a breast reduction, will my breasts be able to produce a sufficient amount of milk to feed my future baby?

Answer:

Okay that it is kind of a tough one, because I certainly cannot guarantee one way or the other. To some extent, it depends on how large your breasts are and how high they need to be lifted and how much breast material needs to be removed.  Going almost all breast reductions, the nipple is left attached to some of the breast tissue, so the ducts which get the milk from the breast tissue to the nipple are left intact.

Some of them are divided though, and there is a good bit of breast tissue that can no longer communicate with the nipples. For this reason, I think that it is crucial to make sure that your surgeon knows all of your desire to breast feed in designing the procedure. Nonetheless, if you are really trying to get pregnant now, and you definitely want to breast feed, I think that the wisest suggestion I can give you is to accept suffering a little bit more of your discomfort from the larger breasts ( which are going to get larger anyway when you are pregnant and breastfeeding and then end up droopy afterwards) and then address all of these issues when you are done breastfeeding.