A disease in which inflammation occurs in the mammary glands is called mastitis. Most mothers whose children were breastfed are familiar with this disease firsthand. The characteristic signs of the disease are severe pain in the chest, its sharp change in size and redness, discomfort during feeding, fever, and others.
Mastitis occurs in several stages. If no effective treatment was applied at the first symptoms of the disease, it can go into a more dangerous purulent stage, with the threat of complications.
Causes of mastitis
Can a woman's mistaken actions cause mastitis while breastfeeding? The reasons for the development and progression of the disease are very different.
The main culprits that cause the disease are streptococci, Staphylococcus aureus and other bacteria that enter the female body.
Pathogens can enter the mammary glands:
- through the ducts, fissures, wounds on the chest, which are the right environment for this;
- via the circulatory system if the woman has other chronic infectious diseases.
In the normal state, a woman's body is able to cope with a small number of bacteria on its own, but after childbirth, the immune system is weakened and cannot resist pathogenic microbes.
In addition, a woman's disregard for hygiene standards during feeding may be involved in the appearance of this disease. Another reason why breastfeeding mastitis occurs is lactostasis.
Signs of lactostasis
The disease can develop due to congestion in the ducts with improper expression of milk from the breast or long breaks between feedings. The dairy environment is a beneficial environment for the growth of the number of bacilli. Characteristic signs of lactostasis are:
- nodular seals in the mammary gland that dissolve after massage;
- chest pain;
- uneven, intermittent flow of milk from the ducts where the disease develops.
It is necessary to eliminate the problem at the initial stage, since untreated lactostasis develops into mastitis in a few days.
Indirect causes that may contribute to the development of the disease include:
- various nipple defects (it may be retracted or divided into lobes), the baby cannot latch properlyhim during feeding, thereby injuring;
- mastopathy;
- pregnancy pathology, birth trauma and others.
Varieties of mastitis
Mastitis is divided into two main types:
- Non-lactating - a disease that develops independently of breastfeeding. The causes of its occurrence are various injuries inflicted on the mammary gland, hormonal problems.
- Lactational - occurring in the postpartum period.
What are the stages of breastfeeding mastitis? Signs are characteristic for each stage. There are the following stages of the disease:
- Serous - initial. It is characterized by an increase in temperature up to 38 degrees, with chills, weakness, headache, breast enlargement and redness, hyperemia, aching pain, which is aggravated by touching and feeding the baby.
- Infiltrative - the second stage into which serous mastitis develops if it is not treated or treated incorrectly. Characterized by the formation of lumps in the chest and fever.
- Purulent. This stage is characterized by a critical body temperature of 39-40 degrees, sleep disturbance, severe headache, inflammation in the armpits of the lymph nodes, burning pain in the chest from the slightest touch.
Diagnosis
If you experience the above symptoms, you should immediately seek medical help. A specialist, when examining the breast, probing it, diagnoses the problem. Confirm if mastitis has developed during breastfeedingfeeding, and the presence of inflammation in the body will be able to analyze the blood. Bacteriological culture of milk will determine which microbes have caused the disease and their resistance to antibiotics. Ultrasound can also be used to diagnose the disease. It will help to more accurately determine at what stage mastitis during breastfeeding, ultrasound photo.
Mastitis and breastfeeding
If the mother has started the superficial stage of mastitis, there is no inflammatory process yet, but only redness, slight pain is observed, and no medication is used, you can feed the baby with a second, he althy breast. Milk is expressed from the problematic gland, but in no case is it given to the child, so as not to infect him.
In the later stages of the disease, it is urgent to stop feeding, as the pus that can form in the breast can spread to a he althy mammary gland, as well as the bacteria that caused this disease.
During the entire treatment, milk must be expressed without fail. This, firstly, will help maintain lactation, and secondly, the healing process will go much faster.
Mastitis Treatment Principles
Depending on the form of the disease, as well as how long the mastitis has developed during breastfeeding, different methods of dealing with the disease are used. The principles of treatment are as follows:
- Relieve pain.
- Cessation of the inflammatory process.
- Stopping the bacteria that caused the disease.
Treatment methods
In the first stages (serous and infiltrative mastitis in a nursing mother), treatment is carried out by conservative traditional methods. With a purulent stage, one cannot do without surgical intervention.
- Incoming milk should be expressed approximately every three hours or as needed to prevent stagnation and therefore bacteria growth.
- To reduce pain, local anesthesia is used, for example, novocaine blockade, ice can also be applied.
- With prolonged unsuccessful treatment, a serious condition of a woman, the development of various complications and other reasons, it is necessary to reduce the amount of milk secreted or temporarily stop the process with the help of special medicines, which should be used only as directed by a doctor.
- After the final recovery, feeding can be established again.
- To cleanse the mother's body of toxic substances, droppers with saline and glucose are used. They also add drugs to increase the immunity of a woman.
Use of antibiotics
If mastitis progresses while breastfeeding, treatment will not do without taking a course of antibiotics. After the sowing of milk is carried out to identify the sensitivity of the bacteria that caused the disease to antibiotics, a suitable drug will be prescribed. The most commonly used drugs in therapy are the following groups:
- penicillin;
- aminoglycoside;
- cephalosporin.
Treatment can be in the form of intramuscular or intravenous injections, it is also possible to use tablets. The average course is from a week to ten days.
In the treatment of purulent mastitis, one cannot do without surgery to open an abscess in the chest and antibiotic therapy.
After recovery, discontinuation of medication, repeated bacterial culture of milk is carried out. If the tests do not show the presence of an infection in it, you can resume lactation.
Folk treatments
Very often from relatives, friends you can hear recommendations on the use of folk methods of treating such a disease as mastitis in nursing. There are many recipes, the use of which, according to the assurances of healers, are a panacea for this ailment. It cannot be categorically stated that the use of bran compresses, applying burdock, coltsfoot leaves, cabbage, onion cakes with honey, psyllium seed ointments and many other means to the inflammation site is ineffective. All these methods can and should be used, but only in combination with drug treatment and always under the supervision of a doctor.
Given that most often mastitis occurs due to bacteria, herbs and other natural components are not able to kill the infection that has entered the body, antibiotics can do it. But to alleviate the condition of the mother, reduce pain and other unpleasant symptoms, reduce the level of lactation, improvemilk flow they can.
In addition, any self-medication, if mastitis occurs during breastfeeding, is unacceptable. In order to avoid its more severe purulent form or complications in the form of sepsis, it is necessary to immediately seek help from specialists.
Disease prevention
There is no doubt that it is easier to prevent the onset of a disease than to treat it later. Prevention of mastitis during breastfeeding in most cases will save the mother from the development of the disease. It is enough to follow a few very simple rules, and feeding your baby with breast milk will be hassle-free and will bring only pleasure.
- In the first weeks, it is necessary to properly and regularly express after feedings, as milk arrives much more than a very small eater needs, and its leftovers can cause stagnation and inflammation.
- During attachment to the breast, it is necessary to monitor how the baby wraps around the nipple, and change its position when feeding, so that milk is sucked out of the farthest ducts.
- Monitor the appearance of wounds, microcracks on the nipples, timely treat them with various ointments. It is in this case that folk methods will be good, for example, carrot juice has wonderful healing properties.
- Cleanliness is the main factor in disease prevention. A clean body, underwear, a washed and ironed bra are the minimum necessary measures to protect against the penetration of the disease from the outside. In this matter, the main thing is notoverdo. It is also not necessary to wash the breast with soap after each application, so as not to overdry the skin around the nipple and cause irritation. A normal daily shower and occasional rinsing of the glands before feeding will suffice.
Summing up, I would like to once again draw attention to the fact that one cannot take such an ailment as mastitis during breastfeeding lightly. Its treatment must be started immediately, after the first signs appear, which only at first glance cannot carry something serious.
It is unacceptable to self-medicate without seeking medical help, because only after a blood test and a milk culture, it will be possible to prescribe the correct and effective treatment, which will soon be able to return you to nursing mothers.
