When you’ve just given birth and are busy trying to keep a baby — let alone yourself — alive, it can already feel like a lot. Throw breastfeeding into the mix, and it can get even more overwhelming! For many breastfeeding mothers, the experience is easy and without issue.
But for many others, breastfeeding can be difficult and painful. If you’re breastfeeding and experiencing excruciating pain among other ailments, you may have mastitis. Read on for all you want to know about mastitis symptoms and how to treat it.
What is mastitis?
Treatments for mastitis
While there are many home remedies for clearing plugged ducts and treating mastitis, definitely contact your medical provider for a professional diagnosis. When caught early, mastitis is easy to treat. But if you wait too long, pus can form around your infection and may need to be surgically drained.
Oral antibiotics can help clear the infection and acetaminophen or mild pain relievers will help with the pain. If you don’t feel better within the first two days after antibiotics, call your provider again.
In addition, nurse as much as possible — starting with the infected breast — even if it hurts. You can help your baby drain your breast by gently massaging your breast as they nurse. If it hurts too much to breastfeed, try pumping or hand expressing so that you can drain your breast. Consider switching to loose-fitting bras, bras with no underwire, or going braless to keep pressure off your breasts.
“After calling my doctor, I started antibiotics, bought a nursing pillow to improve positioning, and applied warm compresses before each feeding,” said Kaplun. “I also used cabbage leaves, but I am unsure whether that helped. In the end, warm compresses before each feeding and lots of rest helped.”
When you have mastitis, you may worry you aren’t producing enough milk or that your baby isn’t getting enough breast milk. “Many people think that babies need to be exclusively breastfed to see any benefits,” Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) Jennifer Ritchie told Mom.com. “The truth is each drop of breast milk contains one million white blood cells. The baby will receive these antibodies even if the baby gets 5 cubic centimeters of breast milk a day,” she continued.
Don’t let your fear of not exclusively breastfeeding prevent you from feeding your baby with perfectly good formula. Likewise, don’t feel bad if a rough bout of mastitis causes you to quit breastfeeding altogether. Remember that, ultimately, we want to feed our baby nutritious food — whether from breast milk or formula.
