The past few days have not been a funny experience for me; it's been filled with so much pain and discomfort. I decided it was time to take breastfeeding off the table for my son, and it didn't come easy.
I spoke with my friend, who did hers three weeks ago, and she told me about how it was a painless experience for her. I felt a little relieved upon hearing that because that was a different story from what other experienced mothers had told me in the past.
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Unfortunately, my own experience wasn't as smooth as hers, as I experienced breast engorgement once again. Breast engorgement is a situation of breast swelling that occurs the first days after childbirth. It is a normal condition after childbirth due to the increased flow of blood days after the delivery of the child.
This happens as the body shifts from the first to the second stage; this second stage starts a few days after delivery, when milk begins to come in. The body prepares itself to ramp up the production of milk by sending more blood and lymph to the breast.
This therefore leads to an increased volume of fluid in between the breast tissues, leading to pain and other experienced symptoms. While breast engorgement is normal after a new birth, there are other reasons that may trigger it.
When a pumping session is missed, weaning abruptly, nursing a sick baby, when the baby is experiencing difficulty with sucking, creating excessive milk for the baby's appetite, difficulty with sucking or latching, and women who don't express milk because they do not plan to breastfeed for various reasons also fall within this category.
You can easily tell you are experiencing breast engorgement when the breast is heavy or full, tender or warm to touch, swollen, lumpy, and tight.
In my own case, I am experiencing breast engorgement because I abruptly stopped feeding my baby. In fact, on the very day I decided to stop feeding him, I wanted him to enjoy his last breast milk for the season, so I kept on feeding him at every interval.
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Now, I realize the mistake I made was stopping the process of breastfeeding abruptly; I should have just taken it one at a time, limiting sucking sessions one after the other. That was where my friend got it right; she didn't expressly stop altogether but rather limited the spread between days, and that made her journey smoother.
Through my pain, I had to learn ways to relieve my feelings and make myself feel better. Over-the-counter pain relief medications will help with the pain; the application of a cold pack on the breast and pressing out a little and not too much will make you feel better.
If you are trying to excessively pump out the breast to make yourself better, then it's a terrible idea, as that would only worsen your symptoms. Your body's response to the emptying of the milk in your breast is by producing more, so if you empty your breast milk either through continuous breastfeeding or through pressing out, the body would react by producing more milk.
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The most important lesson learned through this entire process is to learn to wean slowly, as weaning abruptly will backfire, leaving you with excessive milk supply. Learning to slowly wean your child will help your body adjust according to time.
If a case of breast engorgement is not handled appropriately, it may lead to mastitis. Mastitis is another name for breast infection, which can happen to either a breastfeeding or non-breastfeeding mother, although it is not so common amongst the latter as it is with the former.
A typical case of infection affects the fatty tissue in the breast, causing a case of pain, lump, and swelling. Most infection cases are due to clogged milk ducts or breastfeeding, but in a few cases, there is an association with breast cancer.
Breast infection can start suddenly and with symptoms in the form of itching, breast tenderness, abnormal swelling that makes one breast bigger than the other, warm breasts, chills, nipple discharge that contains pus, and enlarged lymph nodes in the neck and armpit region; the woman may also feel sick.
Treatments need to be taken in order for inflammation to be reduced alongside pain; when this is done, an infection is stopped from occurring. Formerly, mastitis was often treated with hot compresses and extra pumping, according to our mothers. Things are, however, different these days, of course, with improved medical knowledge.
Experts say the swelling in the breast is mostly as a result of the structures around the milk; the inflammation has to be reduced in order for the flow of milk to be better. At home, some simple techniques can be carried out.
A pack of ice or a frozen bag of vegetables can be laid on it to help reduce the swelling, and gentle patting of the breast in the direction of the lymph nodes above the collarbones and in the armpit. Always put on a supportive bra and avoid placing pressure on the breast.
If mastitis is not treated, it could result in a breast abscess. If this eventually happens, surgical treatment would be a good alternative to draining out the pus.
https://www.healthline.com/health/duct-ectasia-of-the-breast
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/baby-care-weaning
https://www.healthline.com/health/breast-infection#diagnosis
https://www.webmd.com/women/what-is-engorgement
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15613-mastitis
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/breast-engorgement.
Hi, I am Tobi, a writer, speaker, relationship blogger, and lover of good music. I love making friends and learning from people.
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