Laser vision correction and pregnancy and breastfeeding
Pregnancy and breastfeeding are among the relative contraindications when we plan to laser vision correction. This means that once the baby is born and breastfeeding is over, the patient is ready for the procedure – unless other contraindications come into play.
Experts believe that to safely perform laser vision correction after pregnancy, one should wait about six months after giving birth or after stopping breastfeeding.
\During this time, hormones in the woman’s body stabilize, which makes it possible to carry out authoritative diagnostic tests and affects the normalization of the recovery process – the healing process of the cornea will not drag on.
Can I give birth naturally after laser vision correction?
There are also doubts among women about natural childbirth AFTER having already undergone laser vision correction. Well, previous undergoing laser vision correction prevents natural childbirth only if the thickness of the cornea after the procedure is less than 350 µm. In addition, it should be remembered that such a procedure only corrects the defect (short- or farsightedness), but does not include any impairment of the retina itself, which often with large defects leaves much to be desired.
This is important because when the decision is made to have a cesarean section for ophthalmic indications, it is not the visual defect (usually myopia) per se that is one of the indications, but myopia with subretinal neovascularization (Fuchs’ stain), that is, the appearance of new abnormal blood vessels under the retina, which with great effort can burst, threatening hemorrhage and loss of vision.
In the past, high myopia was considered a sufficient indication for termination of pregnancy by cesarean section.
Today, however, according to the 2013 ophthalmology-obstetrics consensus guidelines on indications for termination of labor by cesarean section due to ocular lesions, neither myopia without macular changes nor degenerative changes in the periphery of the eye are indications for cc.
The list of ophthalmic indications for cc is, of course, longer and includes, among others: diabetic retinopathy, advanced or acute corneal cone, or advanced glaucoma with large changes in the visual field.
