Can you breastfeed after breast augmentation?

Getting breast implants is a major and life-changing decision that can help dramatically improve your body shape. But many are worried about pregnancy and breastfeeding after breast augmentation. In general, yes, you can still breastfeed after breast augmentation! However, your ability to breastfeed after breast augmentation does depend on a few factors. Read along to find out more.

What is breast augmentation?

Breast augmentation is a cosmetic surgery procedure done to increase the size and enhance the shape and size of your breasts. Getting breast augmentation can help you achieve a curvier and sexier body line and benefit you by:

• Increasing the cup size of your breast
• Enhancing your breast shape
• Restoring volume and fullness to your breast
• Correcting uneven breasts
• Fixing saggy breasts

Typically, you can increase your breast cup size by two main types of breast augmentation surgery:

• Fat grafting
• Breast implants

Fat grafting is where you transfer your fats from other parts of your body to your breasts. And then there is the more popular option – breast implants. Breast implants are usually preferred as they give your breasts a more definite shape and way more voom in increasing cup size. And they give much longer lasting results than fat grafting too.

Reasons for getting breast augmentation

There are many different reasons why many women seek breast augmentation and that should not be frown upon. In fact, breast augmentation actually has one of the highest satisfaction rate as compared to all other cosmetic procedures.

Can you breastfeed after breast augmentation?

Not being able to breastfeed after breast augmentation is not exactly a myth. As a matter of fact, getting breast augmentation does not affect your ability to breastfeed and breast implants do not affect the quality of your breast milk either. That said however, your ability to breastfeed after breast augmentation does depend on a few factors:

Factor 1: Type of incision

Basically, there are three types of incision methods for breast augmentation – armpit incision, areola incision and under breast incision. Incisions made at the armpits and under the breasts (at the crease under your breast) will not cause any problems with breastfeeding or milk supply.

However, for those who chose to have their incisions made around their areolas might have a higher chance of affecting their ability to breastfeed. Here’s why. Though incisions at the areolas does result in less visible scars, there is a chance that the incision could affect the sensation of your nipples which in turn, could affect the quantity of milk supply. But of course, that is not definite and you won’t know if it has affected your ability to breastfeed until you breastfeed.

Factor 2: Placement of implants

During breast augmentation, breast implants are usually placed behind the milk glands or under the chest muscles. In these cases, the implant does not interfere with your mammary glands or breast ducts function so implant placement will not affect your ability to breastfeed.

Factor 3: Type of implant

It is safe to say that the type of implant used, whether saline or silicone, does not affect your ability to breastfeed. Even in unfortunate cases where a breast implant ruptures, neither saline nor silicone will lead to harmful effects on a baby so there is no cause for concerns. Yay!

That said, silicone breast implants are less likely to rupture when compared with saline implants. If you are still deciding whether to get saline or silicone breast implants, you might want to read our article on the best size and type of breast implants for you for more insights.

Conclusion

Good news is that yes, you can still breastfeed after breast augmentation without affecting the quality of breast milk. That said however, it largely depends on the type of incision that you have chosen to undergo.