Milk stagnation: what to do
As everyone has long known, the ideal food for a newborn baby is mother’s milk. But the female breast is a very delicate mechanism and requires careful treatment. Often young mothers are faced with a problem such as milk stagnation or lactostasis, as experts call it.
Milk stagnation: reasons
When breastfeeding, it is important to pay attention to her condition and her own feelings. Lactostasis usually begins with a feeling of heaviness in the chest. Then seals and nodules appear. Over time, if nothing is done, these nodules become noticeable. Pain occurs, then the temperature rises. Painful sensations affect not only the mammary gland, but spread to the shoulder or the entire arm.
There may be several reasons for milk stagnation:
- The most common is missed feedings.
- Incorrect feeding. This happens to inexperienced mothers who simply do not know how to breastfeed a child. As a result, the baby cannot suck out all the milk completely, and it stagnates in the breast.
- Incorrect pumping. Often young mothers have milk arrives very quickly and in large quantities. The baby is simply not able to cope with so much nutrition. In this case, there is a high risk of developing lactostasis.
Milk stagnation: what to do
If you suspect milk stagnation, then, first of all, offer your baby your breast more often. There is a possibility that the child himself will help solve this problem. Please note that when sucking, the lower jaw works more actively. So change your position feeding depending on the location of the stagnation.
Put your baby to your breast more often. Let him eat little by little, but every hour or two. This will also help eliminate stagnation. At the same time, you can adjust your regime to the baby’s activity regime and sleep with him.
Between feedings, you can apply compresses of fresh cabbage juice or a regular cold compress to the sore breast. Flour tortillas also help honey, applied to the affected area.
To reduce swelling and relieve lumps, use Arnica ointment, a homeopathic herbal remedy. You can use a cream called Trameel C for the same purpose.
Do not stop breastfeeding your baby under any circumstances. Your milk won't hurt him. Besides, no one can handle emptying a breast better than a baby. Do not apply heat to the breast between feedings. This will only increase the pain and discomfort. You should not reduce the amount of fluid you drink to reduce milk production. This can lead to an increase in temperature and impair the flow of milk produced.
How to express milk during stagnation
If frequent feeding of the baby to the breast does not produce results and lactostasis does not go away, then you need to try to manually express the milk. Because of the pain, many young mothers refuse to do this. But this behavior is fundamentally wrong. By itself, stagnation of milk will not go away and measures must be taken to empty the breast. Moreover, this must be done as early as possible, otherwise mastitis may develop.
Expressing is done like this:
- First, place your fingers underneath the sore breast at the edge of the areola and pump slowly and rhythmically. Apply pressure to the clogged chest area first.
- Then place your thumb and index finger on the edge of the areola and continue expressing. Now the milk must be expressed from the entire breast. If the milk no longer flows, but the lump is still there, then stop pumping and give a light massage. After this, continue the process.
- Now massage your breasts with both hands, directing movements from the edge of the breast to the nipple. After this, continue the pumping process.
When you finish expressing milk, place your baby on your breast. It will help empty your breasts completely.
