Mastitis:
Does it mean I have to stop
breastfeeding?
By: Carrie Lauth
Mastitis is a breast infection that can affect some breastfeeding mothers. According to Dr. Ruth Lawrence, author of Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Profession, mastitis is an “infectious process in the breast producing localized tenderness, redness, and heat, together with systemic reactions of fever, malaise, and sometimes nausea and vomiting.”
The causes of mastitis are varied but the most common are: irregular breastfeeding
or pumping schedules, a nipple that is cracked (allowing bacteria
to enter the breast), and a clogged duct that didn’t resolve. Sometimes
when other members of the family get sick with colds or flus, the nursing
mother will get mastitis.
To prevent mastitis, be sure you’re using good positioning and latching
baby on properly. If you're pumping, keep to a good schedule and make changes
slowly over a period of weeks so as to avoid becoming overly full.
If you’re weaning your baby, drop one feeding every week for best
results.
Mastitis, like plugged ducts, often occurs in women who have an
abundant milk supply. If this is the case with you,
try nursing baby only on one breast per feeding to help slow your
supply.
To treat mastitis, it’s important to get lots and lots of rest. If
at all possible, go to bed with baby for a day or two.
Get help with your other children. Increase your fluid intake.
It’s important to keep nursing, offering the affected breast first.
This might be a challenge because the affected side will be sore.
If you can’t bear to nurse on that side first, then don’t, but
make sure it is emptied often enough to stay soft.
You may want to hand express if baby is unwilling to nurse.
While you may be told by a health care provider to wean your baby,
this is actually the worst thing you can do. Seek a second opinion - call
a Lactation Consultant or a La Leche League leader. Breastfeeding improves
the flow of
blood to your breast, and the presence of your milk itself also
helps to clear milk ducts of infection.
Your baby will not be harmed by your milk when you have mastitis.
Your baby has already been exposed to whatever caused the infection in the
first place, and if you wean her, you’ll deprive her of the antibodies
that are present in your milk.
Before nursing, use a warm compress and massage the affected area
which will help with milk flow. Nurse baby soon after you do this.
Mastitis doesn’t have to mean the end of breastfeeding for you and
your little one. Try the home treatments mentioned, and if it doesn’t
resolve in two days, contact your doctor.
Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics, which are sometimes recommended
as a treatment for mastitis. Most antibiotics are safe for nursing moms,
but double check with your health care provider, La Leche League leader,
Lactation Consultant or Poison Control Center. Be sure to take the entire
course of pills.
Mastitis is a breastfeeding roadblock that many mothers face, but
it doesn’t have to mean the end of breastfeeding. It can be overcome
with support and good information.
Carrie Lauth is a breastfeeding educator who wants to help more moms meet their goal of one year of breastfeeding.
Visit www.thehappybreastfeeder.com for more free tips.