Now, new research shows breast feeding is more important than anyone ever thought to mom’s health, too.

But what about nursing and cosmetic surgery on the breasts like:

• Breast augmentation
• Breast lift
• Breast reduction

Will any cosmetic plastic surgery procedure on the breasts affect a woman’s nursing ability?

Its’ an important question because the research has revealed that breast feeding may even lower a woman’s risk of the big C.

The August issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, a professional publication for doctors, carries an article about 60,000 women in their 60’s and their health conditions compared to whether or not they breast fed their infants.

Results? Women who breast feed their babies – even for small amounts of time – may lower their risk of developing premenopausal breast cancer – even if they have a family history of the ailment.

The study group who nursed their infants for a year were found to be:

• Nearly 10 percent less likely to have cardiovascular disease
• Very less likely to have heart disease risk factors
• Less likely to have high blood pressure
• Less likely to have diabetes
• Less likely to have high cholesterol

(Read more about the breast nursing study.)

In the vast majority of cases, breast augmentation patients will be able to nurse normally.

Note: If you have nursed in the year before your surgery, a slim possibility exists that you may produce milk after your operation. Your surgeon can prescribe a medication to treat the condition.

For a breast lift or mastopexy, your surgeon will ask if you plan on having more children.

Due to the rigors of pregnancy and nursing, the lifting effect of mastopexy can be undone. If you think you may nurse again, tell your surgeon; a breast lift does not automatically destroy the ability to nurse.

In breast reduction, excess fat and glandular tissue is removed from the breasts while the nipple and areola, the colored areas around the nipples, are moved upwards.

While all that is great for the mother — the weight of abnormally large breasts causes other health woes – some women may be unable to nurse afterwards. Be sure and talk to your surgeon about breast feeding.

Read the story of one mom who had breast reduction and did nurse.

The housewives were having a lark but, actually, taking a friend or two or a relative to your first surgical rejuvenation consultation is a pretty good idea.

Especially if your companion has already had breast enhancement, you are ahead. Usually, what one forgets to ask, the others will.

By the time you get to your first consultation, you should have done enough plastic surgery homework to know:

• If  your surgeon is a board certified plastic surgeon
• How often he or she does the procedure you want
• If there is a charge for the first consultation
• If so,  if it is applied to the cost of plastic surgery

According to surgeons who have seen it hundreds of times over, a breast augmentation patient knows she is really, really ready for surgery when she just can no longer stand the site of her partially filled bra or can’t bear to drum up another excuse to avoid the beach or pool.

Selecting the size is extremely important; a high percentage of breast revision patients go back under the knife again soon because they did not like the size after the first operation healed.

Watch this ‘reality tv’ show version of a breast augmentation consultation.

A couple of things the housewives should have discussed include:

• Questions about time required for healing
• Another two or three such consultations with other plastic surgeons
• The location of any possible scars
• Slim but possible surgical risks
• The surgeon’s before and after plastic surgery pictures
• The completion of various medical tests before plastic surgery
• Various types of financing, including cash, credit cards and plastic surgery financing
• The person who will spend the first 24 hours after surgery with Teresa

Of course, why worry about a companion for after surgery? For somebody who can easily find three friends to go along on a first visit to a plastic surgeon, having a person present during recovery should be a snap!

(The movie’s ad tag: “Never before has one invention given America such a lift!)

The video paints one of the surgeons as a get-rich-quick-artist who spots a surgeon friend’s invention – the silicone implants – as a way to fame, fortunate and a burgeoning 401k account.

What actually happened back in the ’60s was that the two surgeons  — one was a professor of plastic surgery — first tried injecting silicone into the breasts. But after seeing the terrible results on 11volunteer patients, they gave it up.

With the first implant in hand, the doctors came across 26-year-old Timmie Jean Lindsey, a mom who had four children in nine years. That left Timmie Jean with sagging breasts.

She also had a small tattoo on each breast and went to see one of the plastic surgeons for dermabrasion removal of the tats. The surgeon said he had developed  a new breast rejuvenation procedure for women who had many children. But Timmie turned him down, saying what she really wanted was an otoplasty to pin her large ears back.

Eventually, the surgeon agreed to do the otoplasty for no charge if Timmie would have the breast implants. She agreed, increasing her breast size to B from a C, and became the world’s first cosmetic breast augmentation via implant patient in 1962.

Recently, Timmie told the Daily Mail in London, England, that after the procedure, she suddenly got tremendous attention from men and soon married again. (Read the breast implant story.)

The condition of Timmie's breast are shown, extreme left, before surgery; middle, two months after the procedure and two years later.

But after ten years, her breasts became hard – probably due to capsular contracture, a type of internal scarring and the most common complication in breast augmentation.

(See our previous post on typical breast enlargement complications and how to deal with them.)

Timmie, now in her eighth decade, still has problems with her 45-year-old implants but does not want to risk surgery due to her age.

And the surgeons? They sold their invention to Dow Corning in return for royalties.

Although Dow Corning no longer makes breast implants, two other medical manufacturers picked up the slack.

Now, the most current plastic surgery statistics available reveal that breast augmentation is the U.S.’s leading invasive cosmetic plastic surgery, with about 307,000 patients counted in 2008.

Plastic surgeons and other scientists studied the effect of silicone on health for about 14 years, but could find no link. That’s why the implants were allowed back on the market in 2006.

(Nonetheless, scientists are still recording the health of silicone implant patients over time.)

It’s an important question. Mother’s milk transfers an incredible array of immune-boosting prosperities and even reduces common childhood diseases. You just can’t get the same protection from formulas.

In the 1990’s there was a lot of misinformation and fear about silicone. So, in 1998, the Woman’s College Hospital in Toronto studied the amounts of silicon in the breast milk of women with silicone implants.

Just to give consumers comparisons, they also measured silicone in cow’s milk and two dozen infant formulas.

Results? Hold on to your computer  mouse! Cow’s milk has ten times the levels of silicone as mother’s milk. When all the data were crunched, breast milk from women with the implants was found to average 55.4 parts per billion (ppb.) Women with no implants registered 51 ppb. (Read the silicone implant study).

The cows? They must have been eating silicone grass! Their milk registered 708.9 parts per billion. The average for commercial infant formulas was even higher at 4402.5 ppb.

Still not convinced? A similar 2001 study in Sweden in 2001 studied the children of 5,874 women with silicone breast implants against the health of 13,274 children born to mothers who had breast reduction.

The researchers measured how many of the children had throat disorders, rheumatic disease, birth defects and early death. The results? We quote the scientists:

“This study provides no evidence that certain hypothesized health outcomes are more likely among the children of women with cosmetic breast implants.”

(Read an Abstract of the Swedish cosmetic breast implant study.)

Would you nurse with silicone breast implants?

All invasive plastic surgeries leave a scar because the skin must be opened somewhere.

So sure, you’ll have a scar when that incision heals. But it will lighten over time to a point only somebody with a magnifying glass and permission to totally invade your privacy could see it.

Here’s a summary of breast enlargement scars:

TUBA: Short for transumbilical breast augmentation, the plastic surgeon starts by making an incision in one of the creases in your belly button.

He or she then uses long tools to reach up to the breast from the navel. Nobody will ever see the scar unless you tell them where to look. Chances are excellent you won’t be able to find the scar yourself in six months!

Downside: The patient has pain in two areas because the surgeon works about two feet away from the breasts, the target area. And silicone implants can’t be used.

Transaxillary: Again, the surgeon uses a crease in the arm pit to enter the chest area. That’s becomes another scar nobody is ever going to spot. And, the surgeon works closer to the treatment area.

Downside: Some patients don’t heal well from his approach. (See our previous post about transaxillary incisions.) Also, surgeons have very particular rules about shaving and deodorants both before and after a transaxillary incision. Silicone implants require a longer scar.

Inframammary Fold: This is where the very bottom of the breast meets the chest wall. It’s a slightly longer scar but viewable by only those to whom you are closest.

Downside: Not much.

Aerola: The surgeon makes a curved incision on the south side of the areola where the dark part of the areola meets your body’s main skin color. Most surgeons prefer this approach because they feel it gives them the best view and access to your chest muscles. The breast implant is often placed under those muscles.

Downside: the scar heals well in time and is still hidden from public view – providing you don’t go around topless. Nonetheless, surveys show most women are delighted with this approach. The only downside is that the areola must be large enough to fit the implant through the incisions. Some patients requesting silicone implants are not able to choose this option.

Why?

For starters, here are some of the unexpected detours a typical breast augmentation can take. Even in the best of hands, a small (less than one percent) number of cases may experience any of the following conditions:

• Bottoming out

In this scenario, the breast implant has not been placed in the chest pocket correctly and falls to the bottom of the breast, causing the nipples to point up. It’s difficult to fix and usually requires a breast revision specialist. Plus, the cost is usually equal to twice the original cost of the breast enlargement.

• Capsular contracture

Sometimes, the body’s natural reaction to a foreign body – like a breast implant – is to wall it off with scar tissue. It’s one of the most frequent complications.

Capsular contracture can squeeze the implant and breast, making it hard to the touch. Implants placed under the chest muscle have less contracture, plus really skilled surgeons know how to place two-thirds of the implant under the muscle, with one-third over that muscle.

• Implant rupture

Although uncommon, both saline and silicone breast implants can leak if they are ruptured. In the case of a saline implant, the affected breast will collapse. A rupture of a silicone implant is harder to detect because the contents inside are a cohesive silicone gel. Either way, an additional surgery will be required.

• Change of mind

The most frequent reason for another surgery following a breast augmentation is because the patient sees the final result and wants a larger bust line. (About 10 percent want a smaller implant.) A well trained surgeon can give you good advice because he or she knows how to rate various factors – like the base diameter of the patient’s breast, shoulders, hips and general body build – to recommend an implant for a breast size that best flatters you. The board-certified surgeon will also consider your profession and culture in recommending a final size for your bust line.

Have you ever considered breast augmentation?

However, there are many elements to breast augmentation, meaning many decisions to make. Among them are:

• Saline or silicone breast implants

Many patients report that silicone is softer and has a more natural feel. However silicone implants cost more. Patients must also decide if the implant goes over or under the chest muscle.

• Motivation

Plastic surgeons report that women who ask for breast augmentation often have uneven or different size breasts. Some women have lost breast shape because of normal aging while others have gained a lot of weight and then lost it all. In many cases, breast size is lost through nursing and pregnancy.

• Cost

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the average surgeon’s fee is about $3800.  But additional fees are necessary: one each for the operating room, the implants and an anesthesiologist, all of which can add another $1800 to $3000 onto the total cost.

A typical total cost of breast augmentation in the U.S. averages between $6000 and $8000.

• Future procedures

Breast enhancement is rarely a one-time event. Most women with breast implants should plan on having at least one more procedure within about ten years. Sometimes, the patient wants a smaller bust line or time takes its toll on the implant.

• Incision

Breast augmentation offers four possible routes for putting an implant under a breast.

Three involve three to four inch incisions and scarring :

• Under the breast where the gland meets the chest wall
• Through the armpit
• Through the areola

The scars almost always are well hidden, heal well and lighten over time. The fourth approach is the TUBA through the belly button; that method requires the smallest incision of all.

• Complications

Even in the best of hands, complications happen.
Possible — but rare — complications include:

• Infection
• The breast hardening due to a type of internal scarring known as capsular contracture.
• Rupture and leakage
• “Bottoming out:” the implant falls out of its pocket

Your best bet? See a board certified plastic surgeon. With five to seven years extra training, he or she has seen it all and immediately knows what to do.

How would you decide on breast surgery?

Like everything in life, breast implants also come with a risk. Although unlikely, breast implant surgery may cause damage to nerves, milk ducts, and milk glands. This may lead to a decrease in the amount of milk produced by your breast and/or a decrease or stop in the flow of breast milk.

HOWEVER, research shows that most women who undergo breast implant surgery are still able to breastfeed afterwards. Remember, the breast augmentation technique is also an important factor to consider in that certain surgical methods have higher risks associated with them in terms of breast feeding. Where your implants are placed are also significant in determining the affect of implants on your ability to breastfeed. Breast implants can be placed under the chest muscle to prevent damage to milk ducts and glands. You may also worry that chemicals in the implants will mix with the breast milk. Good news ladies! Research shows that both saline implants and silicone implants pose no harmful effect.

Although you and I can’t predict the future (unfortunately) and cannot control the outcome of surgery,  letting your surgeon know of your concerns,  can help him/her to select the surgical techniques that coincide with your best interest.