It will continue to supply enough milk for your baby from
the unaffected breast.
You can continue to nurse from
the unaffected breast.
You might choose to nurse only on
the unaffected breast so that the painful side can have some time to heal.
Alternately, feed from
the unaffected breast to help the let - down start, and then have your baby breastfeed.
For example, in certain cases of breast cancer, you may be able to continue nursing from
the unaffected breast.
You can try offering
the unaffected breast first until let - down occurs, to prevent discomfort.
If pain interferes with the let - down, feeding may begin on
the unaffected breast, switching to the affected breast as soon as let - down is achieved.
«For women who do not have a strong family history or a genetic finding, we would argue it's probably not appropriate to get
the unaffected breast removed,» says Hawley, who is also a research investigator at the Ann Arbor VA Center of Excellence in Clinical Care Management Research and a member of the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.
In an accompanying editorial, Lisa A. Newman, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, discusses the issues involved with the use of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (risk - reducing mastectomy for
the unaffected breast).
For most women, removing
the unaffected breast does not improve survival.
But when her doctor told her that the type of tumor she had — invasive lobular carcinoma — slightly increased her risk of developing cancer in
the unaffected breast, she decided to have a double mastectomy and sacrifice her ability to breast - feed.