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Pregnancy After Breast Cancer

One Woman's Experience

By Kate Riener Boyd

Like the question of breastfeeding. As in, will I be able to do it? When I first became pregnant, it seemed that both breasts were swelling as they should, as breasts would on any pregnant woman. I got hopeful. At the 4-month mark, my breasts became less tender and began to change in size again. This time, the cancer breast shrank, and the healthy breast grew stretch marks. I wasn't sure what was going on, but it didn't look promising. My OB/GYN wasn't sure either, but she assured me that even if my right breast couldn't produce milk, the left one would compensate.

My oncologist didn't hesitate: "Oh no, you won't breastfeed from the right breast." I was disappointed and nervous hearing that news. I still am, actually. I don't know what it will be like to have only one breast making milk. I want very much to breastfeed, but I need to be ready to bottle-feed if necessary.

I also have an open mind about my deepest source of concern: passing cancer to a daughter. I get to avoid that internal battle for a spell; I happen to know that this October I will give birth to a little boy. I will have a son who may or may not breastfeed from one healthy breast, who may or may not lose his mother to breast cancer, who will always know how much he was wanted and who will learn by and by to love Pep-o-Mint LifeSavers.

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