How to distinguish lactostasis from mastitis: symptoms of diseases, similarities, differences and advice from doctors

In the article, we will consider how to distinguish lactostasis from mastitis.

Recently, more and more young mothers prefer to breast-feed their baby, but very often they have to abandon such an idea because of the pain that occurs during the feeding process. The most common painful conditions in lactation are mastitis and lactostasis. How to distinguish one from the other is interesting to many.

Doctors strongly advise women to continue only breastfeeding for up to 6-9 months, and then start feeding the baby and gradually transferring it to normal nutrition. But these problems develop, as it is, in the first months of feeding. Many women refuse to breastfeed.

Serious complications

If lactostasis and mastitis are eliminated in a timely manner, they do not cause serious harm, but if untreated, serious complications can develop. Similar problems arise not only in women giving birth for the first time, but in mothers who have given birth more than once.

These pathologies are similar to each other - they are accompanied by the development of severe pain in the mammary glands, local redness, the occurrence of seals, but they also have significant differences. To understand what disease arose in a woman, one should study the features of mastitis and lactostasis. How to distinguish them from each other?

Symptoms of lactostasis

Lactostasis occurs due to the fact that milk is stagnating in the breast and obstruction of the excretory duct of the mammary gland occurs. It can occur in the lactation period, regardless of how old the baby is.

In the place where the blockage of the chest lobe occurs, redness and severe soreness occur. The mammary gland consists of approximately 20 lobes, which end in a duct extending into the nipple.

If you express milk with lactostasis, you can see that it does not follow from each lobe, or flows weakly from one or several lobes, while from others it is under strong pressure.

Well-being of the woman

It is worth noting that the well-being of a woman with lactostasis remains normal, the temperature does not increase.

It is important that such problems arise for reasons not related to the experience of feeding, the age of the baby. Lactostasis can develop at the most inopportune time.

How to distinguish lactostasis from mastitis, it is important to find out in advance.

Reasons for the development of lactostasis

The main reason for the development of the problem is insufficient emptying of the lobe of the mammary gland. It can occur for the following reasons:

1. Strong overwork, great physical exertion, stress.
2. Large size of the mammary glands.
3. Inverted nipple.
4. The occurrence of cracks in the nipples.
5. Laying the baby on only one breast.
6. Failure to comply with the feeding regimen.
7. Improper position in a dream (when the mammary gland is pressed to something).
8. Damage to the nipple, chest mechanical damage.
9. Dehydration, which causes condensation of milk.
10. Endocrine disorders in the mother.
11. Finger support of the breast.
12. Violation of the technique of applying the baby to the chest. Because of this, the baby incorrectly grasps the nipple and cannot completely empty the chest.
13. Using a bra that is improperly selected and compresses the chest.

Once the cause of lactostasis is clarified, you can begin to eliminate the problem, as well as take measures aimed at preventing the re-development of the disease. Measures taken on time can prevent the development of complications, for example, mastitis.

Symptoms of mastitis, causes of development

The difference between lactostasis and mastitis is difficult to understand.

Lactational mastitis is a complication that develops as a result of lactostasis due to the fact that pathogenic microorganisms penetrate through the duct into the mammary gland. Symptoms with mastitis, as a rule, are very pronounced:

1. Severe soreness in the chest, which occurs when a woman changes her body position.
2. Redness of the skin in the projection of the stagnation area.
3. Strong fever.
4. Chills, fever.

To determine that fever is a symptom of mastitis, you should measure it in the groin, elbow, and both armpits.

Specialists draw the attention of women to the fact that if the temperature in one of the armpits is higher, then we can assume that it is provoked by developing mastitis.

Stages

There are three stages of the disease, which are interconnected, arise one after another:

1. Trauma, swelling of the nipple of the mammary glands.
2. Lactostasis.
3. Mastitis.
   

A crack on the nipple causes severe pain. Because of this, a woman begins to involuntarily reduce the meal time for the baby, which in turn becomes the cause of obstruction of the ducts in the breast.

In addition, severe pain, developing with lactostasis, interferes with the normal expression of milk. Because of this, the degree of clogging of the duct increases. Stagnant milk favorably affects the development of pathogenic microbes (staphylococci, streptococci), which penetrated through a crack on the nipple or areola. The result of such a defeat is mastitis.

The immune system of a woman is greatly weakened after childbirth, her body is not able to cope with emerging inflammatory foci. In this case, urgent treatment is required, otherwise further complications may occur.

So, how to distinguish lactostasis from mastitis?

Comparative analysis of symptoms, differences in diseases

The symptoms of these two diseases are almost the same, while the results of laboratory tests of blood samples are also similar. However, it is still possible to differentiate mastitis and lactostasis from each other according to certain signs.

Mastitis is of two varieties - non-lactational and lactational. The probability of development is higher if a woman is breastfeeding.

And what are the differences between lactostasis and mastitis? Lactostasis, in turn, can develop exclusively in the lactation period, that is, with breastfeeding. This means that a non-breastfeeding woman cannot have lactostasis. With adequate therapy, the problem disappears in just a few days.

Mastitis is a consequence of the incomplete cure of lactostasis. Its onset is characterized by the appearance of severe symptoms of the inflammatory process. Mastitis in its development passes through three stages:

1. Serous. It is characterized by the appearance in a woman of signs of serious intoxication of the whole organism.
2. Infiltrative. At this stage, an increase in the inflammatory process and a long-lasting fever are noted.
3. Purulent. At this stage, a purulent lesion joins mastitis.

Lactostasis differs from mastitis primarily in the absence of an inflammatory process. In addition, with lactostasis, a woman maintains a normal body temperature, general well-being. With mastitis, the temperature rises sharply, there is weakness, fever, chills, headache. At the same time, the general state of health of the woman is rather difficult.

Since lactostasis flows into mastitis imperceptibly, it is quite difficult to accurately recognize the end of one disease and the beginning of the second. Only an experienced mammologist can do this.

It is also worth noting that lactostasis is usually treated with conservative methods. With mastitis, women mainly recommend surgical treatment for women.

These are the main differences between lactostasis and mastitis.

Conclusion

In this regard, it is important to pay attention to your own health when feeding the baby, follow the recommendations of doctors on the correct attachment of the baby to the chest, and timely treat cracks that arise on the nipples. Only in this case can lactostasis be recognized in time, eliminate it, preventing the development of mastitis.

We examined the difference between mastitis and lactostasis.