Alleviating and Mitigating Breast Fullness: A Guide
Breast engorgement is a common condition experienced by new mothers during the initial stages of breastfeeding. This article provides practical tips to prevent and relieve breast engorgement, ensuring a comfortable nursing experience for both mother and baby.
Breast engorgement occurs when milk builds up in the breast, leading to pain, warmth, and tenderness. To prevent this, it's crucial to continue frequent breastfeeding, aiming for 8 to 12 feeds a day to empty the breasts regularly. Ensuring a good latch is also essential for effective milk removal.
Changing breastfeeding positions regularly can help ensure all breast tissue is emptied. Applying warm compresses before feeding can encourage milk flow, while cold compresses afterward help reduce swelling and pain. Gentle breast massages before and during feedings can aid milk flow and relieve discomfort.
If a baby cannot nurse sufficiently, manual expression or the use of a breast pump every 2-3 hours can help remove excess milk. However, it's important to pump carefully to avoid overstimulation of milk production. Wearing comfortable, non-restrictive bras is also important to avoid adding pressure to the breasts.
Warm compresses, such as a warm shower, before nursing soften the breast and promote let-down. Cold packs after feeding reduce inflammation and pain. Massaging breasts with gentle strokes or oils can further ease engorgement symptoms.
If symptoms persist, such as persistent pain, redness, lumps, or signs of infection like mastitis, it's essential to seek medical advice. Cold and warm compresses, massage, and over-the-counter pain relievers can alleviate discomfort caused by breast engorgement.
For those wishing to stop nursing, it's best to do so gradually over several weeks. The nipples may become firm and flat during breast engorgement, making it difficult for the baby to latch and feed. Engorgement can make sleeping difficult, but expressing milk before going to bed, using cold compresses, sleeping in a slightly reclined position, avoiding sleeping on the stomach, and wearing a supportive nighttime nursing bra can help.
If a person has engorged breasts, they can wake the baby to feed until they are full or express milk by hand or with a pump until they feel more comfortable. Breast engorgement is common among people who are newly breastfeeding or chestfeeding and often occurs in the first week after giving birth.
To relieve breast engorgement, people can feed little and often, apply a warm washcloth or take a warm shower before feeding, hand express or pump a little milk out of the breast before feeding, apply a cold pack between feeds, take acetaminophen or ibuprofen to relieve pain, wear a properly fitted, supportive bra, and ensure regular feedings. Engorgement can subside within 12-24 hours after expressing milk from the breast.
The best way to prevent engorgement is to stick with regular feedings and avoid using pacifiers or artificial nipples on bottles until nursing is established. Engorgement is a painful condition that can come on rapidly after giving birth, but it usually clears up within a few days as the body adjusts to the dietary needs of the baby.
[1] Breastfeeding Basics. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/breastfeeding-basics/ [2] Engorged Breasts. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324318 [3] Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Professional. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240015806 [4] Breastfeeding Support: Tips for Success. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.la lease.org/resources/breastfeeding-support-tips-for-success/ [5] Breastfeeding Basics. (2021). Retrieved from https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/breastfeed.html
Womens-health shops may stock dairy-free creams for application on the breasts during engorgement periods, providing comfort to breastfeeding mothers. Appropriate science-backed information about breast engorgement, including prevention and relief tactics, can be found in health-and-wellness articles, as well as resources from reputable organizations like the NHS (Breastfeeding Basics, 2021), Medically (Engorged Breasts, 2021), WHO (Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Professional, 2021), La Leche League (Breastfeeding Support: Tips for Success, 2021), and Kids Health (Breastfeeding Basics, 2021).
