The female body is weakened after pregnancy and childbirth, and is vulnerable during lactation. The immune system is under great stress, and a nursing mother runs the risk of easily catching a cold or catching a chest cold. If a woman is droopy, she may develop mastitis. Primipara mothers are more often susceptible to this disease, but under the influence of unfavorable and endogenous factors, anyone can get sick. If a nursing mother feels a burning sensation, pain or discomfort in the mammary glands, she should urgently consult a doctor so as not to start the inflammatory process that has begun. Therapy will depend on the type of pathology.
Causes of lactostasis
Postpartum mastitis occurs in 7% of women.
If an infectious disease develops during breastfeeding, it provokes inflammation of the glandular ducts. For this reason, lactostasis occurs, which makes it difficult for milk to pass through the ducts of the mammary glands. Staphylococcal infection enters the breast from a source in the woman’s body or from the surface of the skin. The bacteria themselves do not multiply in breast milk, but cause blockage of the ducts and inflammation.
Sometimes the infection develops secondary, and for this reason doctors recommend dressing warmly, avoiding drafts and strengthening the immune system. Mom needs to rest, not be nervous and eat well to increase the body's resistance.
Reasons that provoke the development of mastitis and lactostasis:
- 1. Difficult childbirth.
- 2. The baby does not latch onto the nipple correctly.
- 3. Underdeveloped milk ducts.
- 4. Failure to comply with hygiene rules.
- 5. Weak immunity.
- 6. Incorrect expression of remaining milk.
Lactostasis cannot be ignored, as it will not go away on its own. Avoid hypothermia and infection. The development of inflammation in the ducts can affect neighboring tissues. Lobulation and fatty layer do not prevent the spread of infection, and neglect of treatment is fraught with serious complications.
Symptoms
A woman will feel hypothermia in her chest immediately. Signs appear several hours after the patient has had a blow. The most common symptoms of lactostasis:
- 1. Feeling of increasing pain in the mammary glands. There is a burning and tingling sensation.
- 2. The breast increases in volume.
- 3. Temperature rises.
- 4. Seals are felt.
- 5. Milk changes color: it acquires a greenish or dark yellow tint.
- 6. Enlarged lymph nodes in the armpit on the side of the infected mammary gland.
If the pathology is not treated, after three days the purulent process will begin, and the nursing mother will feel general malaise, severe weakness and lack of appetite. Purulent discharge will appear from the nipple, the woman will feel muscle weakness, increased sweating and rapid heartbeat.
Treatment of a simple case
Mild lactostasis, which the woman noticed immediately, can be cured without resorting to medications. To stop the process, it is necessary to maintain the temperature in the room and avoid drafts. And:
- 1. Express the remaining milk after each feeding so that it does not remain and cause stagnation.
- 2. Do not adhere to the feeding schedule, but put the baby to the breast as soon as pain occurs.
- 3. Drink less liquid so that it does not accumulate and arrive in the form of excess milk. The child will still get the required amount, even if he does not drink a lot of water.
- 4. Do a light breast massage, gently stroking and kneading it. If you find it difficult to massage your cold breasts, you should ask a doctor or family member. Before the massage, it is recommended to take a warm shower and lubricate your chest with baby or pharmacy cream.
- 5. After feeding, nipples should be treated with antiseptic ointment.
Massage scheme
If only one mammary gland is cold, you still cannot feed the baby only with it. The second one also needs to be expressed and used for breastfeeding. To better understand which breasts hurt, you need to apply clean cotton swabs to the nipples and look at the color of the milk. The breast in which the color has changed is unhealthy.
If you have mastitis, you should not:
- Abruptly interrupt lactation without consulting a doctor.
- Take medications without consulting a specialist.
- Apply warming compresses with camphor alcohol if there is a fever.
- Take a hot bath.
Self-medication can lead to worsening of the condition and serious complications.
Folk recipes
Treatment with traditional methods helps prevent chemicals contained in medications from getting into milk. Chemicalstends to accumulate in the body and remain in the blood for a long time. Doctors advise resorting to antibacterial therapy only in extreme cases. If they enter the baby's body through mother's milk, it leads to dysbiosis and weakened immunity in the baby.
At the first signs of pathology and to relieve inflammatory processes, folk remedies are used:
| Means | Manufacturing | Application |
| Cabbage leaf compress | You need to properly tear off the cabbage leaf in the shape of a triangle. Lightly tap the concave side of the leaf with a meat mallet to release juice. | The leaves are applied after evening feeding and pumping with the inner part to the skin for the whole night or until the child wakes up. Attach the leaves with a bandage or make a loose bandage |
| Salt compress | Heat a glass of water to 45 or 50 degrees, add one tablespoon of sea or regular salt and stir well. From soft natural fabric or several layers of gauze, cut a circle to the size of the mammary glands, cut holes in it for the nipples. This is done so that the salt does not get on the delicate skin of the nipples. | Salt perfectly draws out excess fluid and normalizes blood circulation. You need to soak the cloth in saline solution and apply it to your chest. Wrap loosely with film and a diaper. Leave the compress until it cools down |
| Sage tea | For one tablespoon of sage you need a glass of boiled hot water. The drink is infused for 20 minutes and filtered. | The product helps reduce milk supply. Suitable for nursing mothers who express large volumes of milk. Drink tea before bed until complete recovery |
| Alder-based ointment | Young, sticky leaves are suitable for its production. I put them tightly in a jar (100 g) and fill them with melted Vaseline. Then leave in a steam bath for 20 minutes, cool and put in the refrigerator. | The prepared ointment is applied to cold mammary glands 2-3 times a day until recovery |
| Alder infusion | Brew one teaspoon of crushed leaves with a glass of boiling water and leave for 20 minutes. The juice is mixed with any vegetable oil and honey, using glass containers for storage, and placed in the refrigerator for 10 hours | Compresses are made from the infusion, applying them to the chest for half an hour before bedtime, until complete recovery. |
| Anti-inflammatory mixture of aloe and kalanchoe | These plants are taken in equal proportions and the juice is squeezed out of them, after washing well | One of the effective traditional medicines for the treatment of lactostasis. Moisten gauze with the squeezed juice and apply compresses to the mammary glands for half an hour after finishing feeding, doing this procedure 3 times a day. |
Tea made from mint or lemon balm leaves will help you not to be nervous. It is important for a nursing mother to remain calm for a faster recovery.
An organ such as the mammary gland in a woman is very sensitive and therefore susceptible to various kinds of diseases. Breastfeeding women are also at risk, since not every mother knows that when breastfeeding, she should carefully monitor her health.
The most common problem a young woman may face is mastitis. But one should not think that only those who breastfeed are susceptible to stromal inflammation; often the disease manifests itself as soon as pregnancy occurs.
At this time, the chest fills up and therefore becomes vulnerable. Colds appear due to Staphylococcus aureus, which has entered the woman’s body, so it is necessary to carefully monitor your health. What to do if you accidentally get a cold in your chest? All this and much more will be described below.
How to understand that a woman has a blown mammary gland? In women who do not have children, mastitis develops very slowly. And in women during lactation, there are symptoms characteristic of mastitis, which rapidly develop over several days. In young girls, symptoms of colds in the mammary gland appear slowly:
- Nipple hypersensitivity appears at the beginning
- Painful sensations when palpating
- Increased body temperature
- Increase in the volume of the mammary glands
- The occurrence of tachycardia
What should you do if you have a cold in your chest, and what should you do if you have symptoms of a cold in your chest? It is necessary to conduct an examination of the mammary glands by a mammologist. Due to the individual characteristics of the body, pathogenic flora can develop quite quickly. Sometimes mastitis leads to infection of nearby tissues. The method of treatment is chosen exclusively by a medical specialist; when prescribing treatment, the stage of the disease and the cause that caused such inflammation are first taken into account.
Causes of inflammation of the mammary gland
Mastitis is a disease in which an inflammatory reaction begins to develop in the body, it occurs directly in the mammary glands. The disease is caused by pathogenic microorganisms. Staphylococcus aureus, as a rule, penetrates into the body with weak immunity.
The symptoms of the disease are quite pronounced, the first sign is pain in the chest area and high temperature, and a runny nose often occurs. Factors that increase the likelihood of mastitis include:
- Mechanical damage to the mammary gland
- Cracked nipples
- Poor hygiene
- Lack of vitamins
- Incorrect hormonal functioning
- Severe hypothermia
- Frequent abuse of antibiotics
As a rule, the breasts get cold while feeding the baby outside.
At the same time, according to medical statistics, it was found that mastitis of the mammary glands most often affects the first-time mother.
But this does not mean at all that this disease cannot manifest itself in patients who have not given birth. Breasts that are not breastfeeding can also catch a cold; it is enough to go outside poorly dressed and mastitis is guaranteed.
Cold breasts while breastfeeding
Throughout the feeding period, you must carefully monitor your breasts so as not to catch a cold. Any symptom is extremely important to take into account. To ensure that the baby’s feeding is not interrupted, it is imperative to follow various types of preventive recommendations. It is very important to contact your doctor on time; at the appointment, the specialist will perform some tests:
- Inspection
- Expressing milk
- Temperature measurement
- Ultrasound of the mammary glands
An experienced doctor will be able to determine lactostasis and prescribe the correct treatment. It is necessary not only to prevent mastitis, but also to ensure that lactation continues.
Disease therapy
If a sign of the disease has been identified, then first of all it is necessary to visit a mammologist; only he can determine the severity of the disease and rule out inflammatory processes in the gland.
As a rule, semi-synthetic drugs of the penicillin group are prescribed. According to statistics, these antibiotics are most used:
- Hiconcil. The drug effectively copes with infection and eliminates inflammation.
- Amotid. This drug has a depressant effect on Staphylococcus aureus.
- Prolexin. Rapidly destroys cells of pathogenic bacteria.
To improve the patient’s physical condition, it is necessary to use the following recommendations:
- To quickly get rid of mastitis, it is necessary for the child to suckle the sore breast, thus allowing natural milk to flow out, thereby eliminating stagnation. Breastfeeding should be carried out in a certain position - the mother should seem to be hanging over the child.
- There is a very good folk method of treating cabbage. The leaf must first be mashed so that it releases the juice.
- Contrast showers in the presence of mastopathy must be completely excluded, and swimming pools are also prohibited.
- Did you know that you can even be treated with ordinary water, you just need to increase the amount of liquid consumed to two and a half liters.
- An alcohol compress with water helps relieve inflammation. To prepare such a compress, you need to mix water and alcohol in a one-to-one ratio. You need to place a cloth in the prepared solution, squeeze it out and apply it gently on the sore chest. This compress must be kept for no more than one hour, otherwise a burn may occur. Before using such a compress, it is recommended to talk with a specialist to avoid unpleasant consequences.
If you have a fever, you need to take two paracetamol tablets at night, or drink tea with lemon. Paracetamol is considered the safest drug; after taking the medicine, you can feed it absolutely calmly, the newborn will not suffer from this.
A little thermal influence on the sore breast will not harm; for this purpose it is recommended to make special baths. After this, you need to wrap yourself up well.
- Use camphor for compresses
- Take medications without talking to a specialist
- Use home remedies without prior doctor's consent
After carrying out these actions, an improvement in the physical condition of the body should appear. If feeling unwell does not go away, then it is probably a manifestation of another, more serious disease. Regardless of the outcome of events, you must definitely consult a mammologist and undergo a diagnosis of the whole body, reviews from patients are proof of this, it is better to be safe than sorry!
At the first sign of a cold, you should immediately consult a doctor. There is no need to try to treat yourself, otherwise you can get bad consequences, and it is better not to get colds in the mammary gland at all.
Non-lactation mastitis is a condition that affects the mammary gland. It occurs outside the period of breastfeeding. Among the main causes, doctors note those occurring during menopause or menopause. In girls during adolescence, breast tissue increases under the influence of estrogens. But the rapid development of the body is reflected in the functioning of the immune system. A decrease in protective functions is another cause of mastitis. Timely treatment of this disease can minimize the likelihood of complications. To do this, you need to know the signs of mastitis in non-breastfeeding women. Symptoms of the pathological process, the main causes, as well as treatment methods will be discussed in this article.
Why does mastitis occur?
The main cause of the disease is considered to be hormonal disorders. Non-lactation mastitis occurs in women during menopause, when estrogen levels drop, and in girls of puberty. Symptoms of this disease are not excluded even in young children.
Certain factors can also provoke mastitis in non-breastfeeding women:
- mechanical damage and injury if infection gets into the wound;
- weakened immunity due to certain diseases (diabetes mellitus, vitamin deficiency);
- operations on the mammary gland.
In infants, mastitis is usually diagnosed in the first weeks of life. The mammary glands swell and secretions accumulate in them, which cannot be squeezed out. The main cause of non-lactation mastitis in young children is hormonal imbalance. The disease does not require treatment and goes away on its own in about a month.
Signs of non-lactation mastitis
The development of the pathological process begins with inflammation of the mammary glands. Initially, the symptoms of mastitis in non-breastfeeding women are mild. Then the secretion of the mammary glands increases, minor discomfort and swelling appear. At the site of inflammation, the skin sometimes darkens and retracts. Such symptoms force a woman to see a doctor. At this stage, the disease is highly treatable.
Breast mastitis in non-lactating women has several development options. Therefore, it is advisable to consider the clinical picture of the disease in relation to each form of the disease.
Acute and chronic mastitis
Considering the severity of the pathological process and its duration, two forms of this disease can be distinguished.
In acute non-lactation mastitis, a woman is bothered by a slight gland, which may be accompanied by redness of the skin in this area. As the disease progresses, there is discomfort in the axillary region, which is associated with the involvement of regional lymph nodes in the pathological process. Sometimes the temperature rises and chills appear. All these symptoms fully characterize acute mastitis in non-lactating women. Signs of mastitis indicate serious changes in a woman’s body, so you should not self-medicate. You should consult a doctor immediately.
Chronic non-lactation mastitis outside the period of exacerbation is rarely a concern. However, a dense infiltrate may form in the area of inflammation. Some patients note the appearance of chest pain of varying intensity, which radiates to the arm or shoulder. Such symptoms intensify before the start of the cycle. When the pathological process worsens, fistula tracts with purulent contents open. Externally, the disease resembles cancer in all its symptoms. Therefore, you should not hesitate or put off visiting a doctor. Lack of proper therapy can complicate mastitis in non-breastfeeding women. Treatment with antibiotics minimizes the risk of negative consequences.
Other forms of the disease
Non-lactation mastitis very rarely progresses to more complex purulent stages and responds well to therapy. If this is a physiological condition, treatment is not required at all. The symptoms of this disease are largely determined by its form.
- Serous mastitis in non-lactating women it is usually a borderline condition. Symptoms are often absent and more reminiscent of mastopathy. Some women note moderate swelling and swelling of the breasts, and a slight increase in temperature.
- Infiltrative non-lactational mastitis differs in a more pronounced clinical picture. Patients complain of increased temperature and heaviness in the mammary gland. The breasts may be hot to the touch.
- Purulent mastitis in non-breastfeeding women it is characterized by pronounced symptoms: chest pain, swelling, high temperature. The patient's condition deteriorates sharply. This is due to the entry of toxins into the blood from a purulent focus of inflammation. The disease in this form resembles a pathological condition that develops during lactation.
Depending on the form of the disease, the doctor prescribes appropriate treatment. However, to determine it, it is necessary to undergo a medical examination.
Diagnostic measures
Confirming the disease is usually not difficult. The diagnosis of “non-lactation mastitis” in non-lactating women is determined on the basis of complaints and clinical picture. The doctor may also order an ultrasound and biopsy of the affected area. In particularly serious cases, microbiological examination of secretions from ulcers is required. In addition, a complete examination of the patient is carried out to determine the underlying disease that caused the hormonal imbalance.
Basic principles of therapy
Treatment of the disease depends on its form, stage and the presence of concomitant ailments. As mentioned above, mastitis in non-lactating women is sometimes a physiological norm. In this case, specific therapy is not required; they are limited to dynamic monitoring of the state of health. Severe disease is treated with antibiotics and antihistamines. All drugs are selected individually.
Depending on what caused mastitis in non-breastfeeding women, treatment may be prescribed simultaneously by several specialists. If the disease occurs due to hormonal imbalances, therapy is selected by an endocrinologist. When mastitis is a consequence of an infection in the chest or injury, consultation with a surgeon is required.
Treatment with folk remedies
Along with conservative therapy, doctors recommend using traditional medicine. At the initial stages of the disease, you can include procedures for washing the affected breast with a special infusion. To prepare it, you need two tablespoons of a dry mixture of chamomile and yarrow flowers (1:4) and pour 0.5 liters of boiling water. This infusion has a disinfectant and anti-inflammatory effect.
To relieve swelling, you can prepare a honey cake. To do this, you need to mix a tablespoon of honey with two tablespoons of flour and knead the dough. The cake must be applied to the affected area and covered with gauze on top. Such a compress must be kept for at least 10 hours.
Mastitis in non-lactating women, the symptoms of which are described in this article, requires qualified treatment. Do not use High temperatures can cause suppuration. The use of traditional recipes is permissible only after consulting a doctor.
Preventive measures
There is no specific prevention for this disease. It is enough to monitor the state of immunity and promptly treat infectious pathologies. These are the two most common reasons why mastitis occurs in non-breastfeeding women. Signs of mastitis should not be ignored; you should immediately consult a doctor. Be healthy!
At any stage of life, especially during pregnancy and lactation, the mammary glands are highly sensitive to negative environmental factors. Injuries, hypothermia, stress - various reasons can disrupt the flow of milk with the development of lactostasis and a high risk of mastitis. You need to know what the signs of congestion in the mammary gland are, and what to do if your breasts get cold: if typical symptoms of lactostasis appear, you need to visit a doctor as quickly as possible to prevent dangerous complications.
Is it possible to get a cold in your chest?
Hypothermia during active lactation is one of the factors that disrupts the outflow of milk through the milk ducts.
The breasts can get cold in a draft or while feeding the baby outside of home: regardless of location, even a one-time exposure to cold can cause a sharp decrease in the lumen of the milk ducts due to spasm. A temporary lack of outflow of milk secretion through the ducts is the main reason for the accumulation of milk in the breast (lactostasis), which is especially dangerous during active breastfeeding.
How to understand that your chest has caught a cold
If congestion occurs in the breast, a nursing mother can quickly notice the following unpleasant changes:
- pain in the mammary glands;
- the presence of a dense node in the chest;
- decreased quantity and quality of breast milk;
- increase in body temperature.
You can catch a cold in your chest easily and quickly, but coping with the resulting lactostasis is difficult and painful. But the most unpleasant thing is that congestion in the mammary glands is one of the reasons for purulent inflammation in the chest (mastitis) and the cessation of feeding the baby with breast milk.
Symptoms of the disease
A woman who is not breastfeeding extremely rarely has problems with inflammation in the mammary gland: mastitis can occur due to injury or due to a tumor, but a cold is not the main factor in the infectious process in the glandular tissue of the breast. When breastfeeding, a woman with lactostasis experiences the following symptoms:
- Pain in the mammary gland (it hurts quite strongly, and the discomfort intensifies over time);
- Detection of a lump in the chest (painful and shapeless lump on one or both sides);
- Temperature reaction (pronounced jump in temperature to 39-40°C in the absence of symptoms of respiratory infection, hot chest);
- Changes in the consistency and color of breast milk (yellowish or greenish tint).
A lactating woman will be able to understand when she has a cold in her breasts - it is important to carefully assess the condition of the mammary glands and monitor her body temperature. The problem can be one-sided: having discovered a blockage of the excretory ducts, you must immediately try to eliminate lactostasis.
Draining one breast is much easier than dealing with bilateral congestion.
Cold breast during breastfeeding
Throughout the entire lactation period, you must be careful and careful about the mammary glands. When feeding your baby, you should follow all the necessary preventive recommendations. It is important to consult a doctor promptly at the first signs of lactostasis: by starting the fight against milk stagnation early, you can prevent dangerous complications. At your appointment, the doctor will perform the following tests:
- Examination and palpation of the breast;
- Assessing the appearance of nipple discharge;
- Body temperature measurement;
- Ultrasound scanning of the mammary glands.
The doctor will be able to identify lactostasis and give recommendations for the treatment of congestion in the glandular structures of the breast. It is important not only to prevent mastitis, but also to maintain lactation in order to continue feeding the baby.
Hello. 3 months have passed since the birth. My breasts caught a cold while walking, what should I apply and what should I do to maintain lactation? Evgeniya, 24 years old
Hello, Evgenia. If your chest hurts, your temperature has risen and you are having difficulty feeding, then the first thing you should do is see a doctor. Before visiting a doctor, you can try to drain the mammary glands yourself and take an antipyretic to lower the temperature. After examination and examination, the doctor will give recommendations for the treatment of congestion in the chest.
What to do?
Before visiting the doctor, you must do everything possible to strain the mammary gland with lactostasis. It is optimal to massage the breasts in the shower - warm water will relax the milk ducts, helping the woman to empty the milk lobules. There is no need to be afraid of breastfeeding your baby: in the initial stages of lactostasis there is no inflammation, so there will be no risk of infection for the baby. To reduce high body temperature, you can take an Aspirin or Paracetamol tablet. Before being examined by a doctor, you must not:
- Take antibacterial drugs;
- Drink too much liquid (by stimulating milk production, you can accelerate the formation of lactostasis);
- Use alcohol-containing compresses topically on the mammary gland;
- Use traditional medicine;
- Forcibly stop lactation.
Lactostasis must be treated correctly, so you should consult a doctor as quickly as possible and use the advice of a specialist in the fight against congestion in the mammary glands.
How to treat cold breasts
The basis for successful treatment for blockage of the milk ducts and the formation of stagnation in the mammary gland is careful and regular expression of milk. Having caught a cold in your chest, you need to do everything possible to get rid of lactostasis. It is best to consult a doctor and use the following methods of therapy:
- After each feeding, be sure to express breast milk, trying to remove all lumps and knots if possible;
- To improve outflow, you should use the doctor’s advice (warm shower, warm compresses);
- Correct use of massage movements (do not rub the skin, but try to remove stagnation by kneading dense, painful nodes);
- At the first stage of pumping, you can use special devices (breast pump), but lactostasis can be effectively removed only with the help of manual massage;
- Strict adherence to hygiene when breastfeeding (washing the breast before and after feeding, mandatory hand washing);
- Use of antipyretic drugs when the temperature rises above 38°C (Aspirin or Paracetamol).
Effective compress options include:
- Honey cake (flour and honey in equal doses are kneaded until smooth, the cake is applied to the chest for 20-30 minutes);
- Vodka compress (vodka is diluted in half with water, a cotton cloth is soaked and applied to the site of lactostasis for 15-20 minutes);
- Fresh cabbage leaves are doused with boiling water and used as a compress for 20-30 minutes.
It would be better for mother and baby to prevent problems than to get cold breasts, create conditions for lactostasis and deal with complications: prevention is always better than cure.
You can often hear breastfeeding women warned about the dangers of breast hypothermia - they say, “if you catch a cold in your chest, it’s not far from mastitis.” Is it really possible to catch a cold in the chest if you are hypothermic?
Let's try to understand the issue, which, unfortunately, is relevant for many young mothers.
Hypothermia can indeed cause some harm to women’s health during the period of breastfeeding a child, but the point here is not a “cold”, but a state of lactostasis - stagnation of milk in the ducts of the mammary glands.
Each mammary gland consists of approximately 15-25 acini, connected by ducts to the nipple: if at least one of the ducts is compressed for any reason, the acini is not freed from the milk it produces. A milk plug forms in the duct, and if it is not eliminated, a banal, but by no means safe, stagnation of milk can turn into uninfected mastitis - inflammation of the mammary gland. Prolonged exposure to low temperatures often causes the milk ducts to spasm, causing them to become blocked.
Other factors can cause lactostasis:
- tight bra;
- predisposition to stagnation of milk (narrowness of the ducts);
- insufficient or irregular breast emptying;
- severe injuries or bruises in the chest area;
- excessive milk production by the glands;
- dehydration of the body (milk becomes thicker and forms plugs faster);
- lack of sleep and stress;
- strong physical activity.
The main measure to prevent lactostasis is to provide a nursing woman with a normal temperature regime in combination with control of the emptying of the mammary glands and proper care for them. Choose comfortable underwear, avoid cracks in your nipples, and monitor the amount of fluid you consume.
When feeding, avoid holding the mammary gland with two fingers (“scissors”) so as not to mechanically compress the ducts. A common cause of stagnation of milk is improper attachment of the baby to the breast: the baby must take the correct position when feeding, pressing his stomach against the mother’s stomach and completely capturing the nipple with his mouth. It is better to feed the baby when he is in a good and cheerful mood: restless and lethargic babies are in no hurry to satisfy their hunger.
In this case, the mammary gland is poorly emptied, as with rare, irregular feeding. However, sometimes it is simply impossible to keep track of absolutely everything. What to do if a woman has a cold in her chest and it already hurts? To begin with, understand that we are talking specifically about lactostasis, and not about any other condition or disease. To determine what you're dealing with, familiarize yourself with the key signs of a chest cold and remember them.
The main signs of lactostasis
The characteristic symptoms of this condition are painful sensations in the mammary gland combined with pronounced discomfort during its emptying. Sometimes it hurts a lot, and redness may appear on it (mainly in areas of the skin located above the affected milk ducts).
An increase in body temperature is not always observed, just as it is not always possible to feel small lumps in the breasts (although many women detect them almost immediately after the onset of painful sensations). To clarify the diagnosis, you should immediately consult a doctor, especially if the painful condition is accompanied by chills, weakness, temperature fluctuations and severe pain. Perhaps we are no longer talking about simple stagnation of milk, but about the onset of mastitis, which in 86% of cases begins with lactostasis.
Breastfeeding with lactostasis
A woman who has a “cold” breast has a hard time breastfeeding, but she cannot stop breastfeeding, even despite the pain and discomfort. The more often and more actively a child feeds, the higher the likelihood of rapid and complete resorption of milk plugs. Usually, with lactostasis, one gland hurts: you should not avoid feeding from this breast, even if, due to significant stagnation of milk, it is difficult for the baby to take it.
In such cases, first simply express a small portion of milk. As a result of this simple manipulation, the tension in the peripapillary area subsides, and the child is able to grasp the nipple with his mouth without much difficulty. A simple massage also alleviates the condition if done regularly: the breast should be massaged in a circular motion, directing the hand from the periphery of the gland to its center. The impact on the gland during massage should not be too aggressive.
If it becomes clear that the child cannot cope with the incoming amount of milk on his own, and even after feeding, lumps in the breast persist and cause discomfort, resort to pumping. Unfortunately, it is difficult to call this procedure pleasant, but it must be done.
Expressing yourself during lactostasis can be extremely painful, so it is better to entrust it to a specialist - for example, an experienced midwife.
As an option, hardware pumping is used, which is almost as effective as manual pumping, but during the procedure you will still have to work with your hands, massaging the affected breast.
In some cases, the doctor may prescribe an ultrasonic massage or intramuscular injections of oxytocin, after which the ducts of the mammary glands contract and the outflow of milk significantly improves.
What should a woman do if she "got a chest cold" far from civilization, and you won’t be able to quickly get an appointment with a doctor?
It is unsafe to self-medicate during milk stagnation, although certain generation-tested recipes for warming compresses with camphor or vaseline oil, Vishnevsky ointment, and diluted medical alcohol are popular among the people. An insulating layer (for example, thick cellophane) is placed on top of the compress, which does not allow the liquid to evaporate and the temperature underneath to decrease. Keeping compresses on the chest for too long (more than 7-8 hours) is not recommended.