Although breastfeeding is the most natural, it can also be synonymous with discomfort and chest pain for the mother. What to do? It’s not a banal question, but on the contrary, especially in the case of mothers. Yes it should be noted that, in the same way that is more frequent than we thought disorder, in the majority of cases it is also transient.
Possible causes
The origin of pain, when the breast, as well as sore is also hard, swollen and hot, with problems of leakage or spillage of milk, it may be in a breast engorgement. A common disorder that is nothing more than inflammation of the too stuffy breast.
In other cases, the pain can be a symptom of the so-called mastitis, a localized inflammation where the pain is accompanied by a marked hardening of the area, redness, and shiny skin. These are the main causes, although some do not underestimate risk factors, such as stress and fatigue, unbalanced diet, especially high fat, a too tight bra, the presence of milk in larger quantities than the baby sucks or the too intermittent lactation.
Prevention and treatment
The most important thing is to know the underlying cause of chest pain during breastfeeding and, from there, to control the triggers to prevent these annoying problems. A pain that can interfere with breastfeeding and, even, discourage the mother to breast-feed.
To avoid the accumulation of milk in the breast, avoiding sinus congestion, we can resort to breastfeeding on demand, i.e., breastfeeding your baby whenever you want and without time limit and schedules. Another option is to remove excess milk, more often, by using a breast pump.
In addition to good habits during breastfeeding (taking care of the feeding, etc.), in the case of annoying symptoms, there are some useful remedies. We can apply heat to the breasts before breastfeeding the baby for added relaxation and to facilitate the release of milk without major setbacks. Or massage in the sore parts, which will be carried out with delicate movements and circular over the entire surface of the breast from the sides towards the center.