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 when feeding, fever and others.
Mastitis proceeds in several stages. If an effective treatment was not applied at the first symptoms of the disease, it can go into a more dangerous purulent stage, with the risk of complications.
Causes of mastitis
Can a woman’s erroneous actions cause mastitis during breastfeeding? The causes of 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 ducts, fissures, wounds on the chest, which are a suitable environment for this;
- through the circulatory system, if a woman is sick with other chronic infectious diseases.
In a normal state, a woman’s body is able to independently cope with a small number of bacteria, but after childbirth the immune system is weakened and cannot resist pathogenic microbes.
In addition, the appearance of this disease may be involved in a woman's neglect of hygiene standards during feeding. Another reason why mastitis occurs during breastfeeding 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.
The characteristic signs of lactostasis are:
- nodular seals in the mammary gland, which resolve after massage;
- chest pain;
- uneven, intermittent leakage 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 defects of the nipple (it can be retracted or divided into lobes), the child cannot correctly grab it during feeding, thereby injuring him;
- mastopathy
- pregnancy pathologies, birth injuries and others.
Varieties of mastitis
Mastitis is divided into two main types:
- Non-lactational - a disease that develops independently of breastfeeding. The causes of its occurrence are various injuries caused to the mammary gland, hormonal problems.
- Lactational - arising in the postpartum period.
What are the stages of mastitis in nursing? Signs are characteristic for each stage. The following stages of the disease are distinguished:
- Serous - initial. It is characterized by fever up to 38 degrees, with chills, weakness, headache, breast enlargement and redness, hyperemia, aching pain, which intensifies when the baby is touched and fed.
- Infiltrative - the second stage in which serous mastitis develops if it is not treated or treated incorrectly. It is 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 weakest touch.
Diagnostics
If the above symptoms appear, you should immediately seek medical help. A specialist when examining the chest, probing it, diagnoses the problem. To confirm whether mastitis has developed during breastfeeding, and the presence of inflammation in the body can be tested by blood. Bacteriological milk culture will determine which microbes caused the disease and their resistance to antibiotics. An ultrasound can also be performed 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 begun the superficial stage of mastitis, there is still no inflammatory process, and only redness, slight pain is observed, and medication is not applied, you can feed the baby a second, healthy breast. Milk is pumped out of the problem gland, but in no case is it given to the child so as not to infect it.
At the later stages of the disease, it is necessary to urgently stop feeding, since the pus that can form in the breast can spread to the healthy mammary gland, as well as the bacteria that caused this disease.
Throughout the treatment, milk should be expressed without fail. This, firstly, will help maintain lactation, and secondly, the healing process will go much faster.
The principles of treatment of mastitis
Depending on the form of the disease, as well as on how long mastitis has developed during breastfeeding, different methods of combating the disease are used.
The principles of treatment are as follows:
- Removing pain.
- Termination of the inflammatory process.
- Stop the breeding of bacteria that caused the disease.
Treatment methods
At the first stages (serous and infiltrative mastitis in nursing), treatment is carried out by conservative traditional methods. With a purulent stage, surgical intervention is indispensable.
- Incoming milk must be decanted approximately every three hours or as necessary, in order to prevent its stagnation and, accordingly, the growth of bacteria.
- To reduce pain, local anesthesia is used, for example, novocaine blockade, ice can also be applied.
- With prolonged unsuccessful treatment, a woman’s serious condition, the development of various complications and other reasons, it is necessary to reduce the amount of milk excreted or temporarily stop the process using special medicines, which should be used only as directed by a doctor.
- After the final recovery, feeding can be restored again.
- To cleanse the mother's body of toxic substances, droppers with saline, glucose are used. Also, drugs are added to enhance immunity in women.
Antibiotic use
If mastitis progresses with breastfeeding, treatment can not do without taking a course of antibiotics. After sowing milk to determine the sensitivity of the bacteria that caused the disease to antibiotics, a suitable drug will be prescribed. The most commonly used medications in therapy are the following groups:
- penicillin;
- aminoglycoside;
- cephalosporin.
Treatment can be carried out in the form of intramuscular or intravenous injections, it is also possible to use tablets. The average rate is from a week to ten days.
In the treatment of purulent mastitis, an operation to open an abscess in the chest and antibiotic therapy cannot be dispensed with.
After recovery, cessation of medication, a repeated bacterial sowing of milk is carried out. If the tests do not show the presence of infection in it, you can resume lactation.
Alternative methods of treatment
Very often, from relatives and friends you can hear recommendations on the use of alternative methods of treating a disease such as mastitis in nursing. There are many recipes, the use of which, according to the assurances of healers, is a panacea for this ailment. It cannot be categorically argued that the use of bran compresses, applying burdocks, coltsfoot leaves, cabbage, onion cakes with honey, ointments from plantain seeds and many other remedies to the inflammation site is ineffective. All these methods can and should be used, but only in conjunction with medical 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 an infection that has entered the body, antibiotics can do this. But they can alleviate the condition of the mother, reduce pain and other unpleasant symptoms, reduce the level of lactation, and improve the passage of milk.
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 the disease than to treat it later. Prevention of mastitis during breastfeeding in most cases will protect the mother from the development of the disease. It is enough to adhere to a few very simple rules, and feeding your baby with breast milk will be hassle-free and bring only pleasure.
- In the first weeks, it is necessary to express correctly and regularly after feeding, as much more milk arrives than is needed for a very small eater, and its remnants can cause stagnation and inflammation.
- During application to the breast, it is necessary to monitor how the baby grips the nipple, and change its position during feeding, so that the milk is sucked from 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 a major factor in disease prevention. A clean body, underwear, a washed and ironed bra are the necessary minimum measures to protect against the penetration of the disease from the outside. In this matter, the main thing is not to overdo it. Washing breasts with soap after each application is also not necessary so as not to dry the skin around the nipple and cause irritation. A normal daily shower and periodic rinsing of the glands before feeding will suffice.
Summing up, I want to once again draw attention to the fact that you can’t be frivolous about such an ailment as mastitis during breastfeeding. Its treatment must be started immediately, after the appearance of the first signs, which only at first glance cannot carry something serious.
Self-medication is unacceptable without resorting to medical attention, because only after a blood test and backseeding of milk can it be possible to prescribe the correct and effective treatment, which will soon be able to return you to the system of nursing mothers.