Breastfeeding & IVF

[onthefly]

Er, no. It really depends on your cycles. Are you having them at the moment? You will get a different answer on this from pretty much everyone you ask, but if you're having normal cycles while breastfeeding, you may not need to wean at all (depends exactly on teh drugs you're going to take and obviously whether you want to continue)
The ABA may be able to give you more info - there's at least one counsellor who has investigated this. You can listen to a podcast she gave on the subject HERE (No. 22).
I did not wean when I did an HRT cycle. I had been having regular cycles for 6 months previously. The drugs dried up my milk and DS weaned once I was a couple of months pregnant.
The short answer is: You need to be having cycles, I don't see why you would need to have weaned for that long.

[entreat]

Sorry - I forgot about this... :blush:

Cycles are regular (about 4 months now). We're still feeding lots during the day & night, but I don't actually want to be pregnant until Jack is much closer to 2yo. I'd just like to get the eggies out a bit earlier.

Thanks for the podcast link. I'll get to that this week. MammaSue sent me this link too: Breastfeeding Through Fertility Treatments (IVF and FET) – updated with info on prolactin and implantation It has great info that one woman has dug up in regards to the hormone treatments. It makes me feel a lot better. I'll be calling the clinic this week & find out their procedures.

TBH, I'd only heard rumour & hear-say from various forums when I was googling for information. I really posted to see what other people had done. Not many of us out there by the looks of things.

Thanks again. I'll be back when I find out from the clinic.

[onthefly]

Thanks for that Entreat
I was actulaly never asked if I was still feeding and didn't volunteer the information. They probably just assumed I would have stopped by then I suppose.

[MummaSue]

Could we keep this thread somewhere? Make it a sticky maybe? As Entreat said, there isn't many of us in this position and would be awesome to keep adding to it as we get more information

[onthefly]

Yeah, I"ve replied to 4-5 of them to date
I'll try and put something together

[~ Mylitta ~]

I continued to breastfeed my son through two cycles of IVF and also all through my pregnancy. My daughter is now 3 1/2 months old and they both love their "mumma milk". I discussed continuing to breastfeed with my IVF doctor and also the ABA. My IVF doctor was happy for me to continue based on the drugs I would be taking (nothing out of the ordinary and fairly low dose) but warned me the drugs might reduce mt milk supply. The ABA pointed me to the podcast posted earlier, and told me that the woman that did the podcast would be happy to talk to me over the phone if I had any more questions.

My milk supply didn't drop during the IVF cycles, but did drop dramatically when I was pregnant. My son went from 10-12 feeds a day, down to 2-3, but he was still happy to suck away When I had my egg collections I was put on an IV drip to keep my fluid levels up so it wouldn't effect my breastfeeding. And they also let me have my son with me right up until they took me to theatre so I could give him a feed right before

[onthefly]

Sticky HERE to collate info
Mylitta I copied your post from your thread, hope you don't mind

[briggsy's girl]

My IVF doctor was happy for me to continue based on the drugs I would be taking (nothing out of the ordinary and fairly low dose) but warned me the drugs might reduce mt milk supply.

i suspect this would be a pretty important factor, so it would be personl to each person individually. at a guess, the dose required for harvest for someone with MF or PGD requirements (so mumma ovulates ok and responds well to the drugs) would be very different to what would happen for someone like myself (i was on 200IU puregon just for 1 follicle for IUI, 350+ for EPU) as well as other supporting drugs.

i think it would fantastic to not HAVE to wean to go through further IVF treatment if you can manage it