Why do breast problems occur and how can they be treated?

The first problem is an uncomfortable nipple shape for the baby. If the nipples are flat or inverted, this makes breastfeeding very difficult, especially when the baby is easily excitable. If he searches for and cannot find the nipple, he screams angrily and throws his head back.

In the previous chapter we already talked about techniques for correcting the shape of the nipples. If you read these recommendations after the birth, then try to put the baby to the breast as soon as he wakes up. And before that, try to "knead" your nipple a little with soft, gentle movements. Perhaps it will harden a little and become a little more convex, and the baby, when he wakes up, will be able to grasp it with his lips. If this technique does not help, then you have no choice but to resort to the help of special silicone or plastic pads. Let the baby suck through the pad for two or three minutes at the beginning of each feeding. After that, when the nipples stretch out a little, try to give him the breast without the pad. Before this, try to squeeze a few drops of milk out of the nipple. Then the nipple will become more elastic, and the areola - softer and it will be easier for the baby to squeeze it.

The second problem is cracked nipples. They can occur due to the incorrect position of the baby during feeding, due to excess moisture, due to friction of the nipples against underwear. Most often, a crack appears at the beginning of feeding. A woman usually treats her breast before feeding, everything goes as usual, and suddenly in the first minutes of sucking the nipple becomes sharply painful.

If a crack appears in one of the nipples (often this happens because the baby chewed the nipple instead of taking the entire areola into his mouth), you should stop giving this breast for two days (or, at least, reduce the time of feeding on this breast to three minutes every 8 hours). After feeding, you can leave the nipple open for 15 minutes so that it dries. One inventive woman came up with a way to exclude contact of the nipple with the fabric of the bra. She inserted a small tea strainer into the cup of the bra. In this case, the nipple was constantly in the air, and she got rid of the crack in the nipple quite quickly.

The damaged breast should be expressed manually two or three times a day. And while the crack is healing, the baby is fed from the second breast. If the crack has healed, then the baby can be put to this breast for a very short time - about three minutes (unless, of course, it causes painful sensations). If everything is in order, then you can gradually increase the duration of feeding from this breast, first to five to ten minutes, and then more. If the crack appears again, the entire procedure is repeated.

Another way to treat cracks is to use nipple shields when breastfeeding. This method is less effective because the nipples do not fully rest and the baby receives less milk through the shield.

Problem three - swelling of the mammary gland. The reasons for swelling are overfilled milk ducts located under the areola. It becomes hard and the baby cannot take it completely into the mouth and squeeze it with the gums. This leads to the baby grasping only the nipple and chewing it, which causes the nipple to hurt and cracks to form on it. If you feel that the areola has hardened, you need to knead it and squeeze out some milk. You only need to express milk for 2-5 minutes (for each breast). Then you need to squeeze the areola and insert it into the baby's mouth to help him start sucking. Sometimes the entire mammary gland swells. It becomes very hard, and there are unpleasant sensations. Most often, this quickly passes, but sometimes it can swell so much that it begins to hurt and harden. In this situation, you need to use a breast pump. If this does not help, abscesses begin to form in the mammary gland, and its skin turns red and becomes hot to the touch. This is the beginning of mastitis, which can only be treated by a doctor.

Problem number four is mastitis (inflammation of the mammary gland). Most often, it occurs in the second to fourth week after childbirth. In the initial stage, which is described above, inflammation is formed. Gradually, the woman's condition worsens, painful seals appear in the mammary gland, the temperature may rise. Later, the seal becomes quite distinct, the temperature reaches 38-39 °C, the symptoms of general intoxication increase: headache, rapid heartbeat, sometimes - shortness of breath. This is the stage of purulent mastitis.

In the initial stages, mastitis is very similar to lactostasis - milk stagnation without infection. The symptoms of both diseases are the same. If lactostasis is not eliminated, the infection that joins it can turn it into purulent mastitis.

At the initial stage, the most important thing is to ensure milk evacuation. This can be achieved by more frequent application of the baby to the breast.

Another method is folk. You can do cabbage wraps for your breasts. Take a cleanly washed cabbage leaf, soften it and put it in your bra so that the leaf covers the entire breast, but does not touch the nipple. If these measures do not help, see a doctor. In this case, antibacterial therapy is needed. But I think that it is not worth letting it get to that point. As soon as you have one of the problems described, do not try to solve it yourself - go see a doctor!