Being a newborn mum is exciting and scary at the same time. You will experience having changes in your body, like your bump getting smaller and your breasts filling up with milk. On some days, your breasts can feel heavy, full, and tight to the point that they are uncomfortable and even painful.
If your breasts make more milk than your baby consumes, your breasts become overfilled and known as breast engorgement.
If you notice having engorged breasts, Eonian Care recommends doing simple treatments as soon as possible as this could result to blocked milk ducts or mastitis.
Symptoms of Breast Engorgement
You may have breast engorgement if you feel that your breasts are:
- Overly full
- Tender
- Hard
- Uncomfortable and painful
Prevention
You can easily prevent this uncomfortable feeling if your breasts are emptied frequently, such as nursing every two or three hours. Severe cases of breast engorgement are usually relieved within 36 hours if you’re breastfeeding the baby.
Having a breast pump helps prevent breast engorgement and helps with discomfort as it empties your breasts with extra milk. You can also do warm compresses afterwards to help relieve pain.
How Can You Prevent Breast Engorgement?
You can prevent breast engorgement if you empty milk from breasts frequently. You can try settling a regular breastfeeding pattern with your little one, such as nursing every two to three hourse.
In the event where you can’t seem to breastfeed on schedule, you can also do warm compresses and express milk using a breast pump. Regulary emptying breasts greatly helps with discomfort.
The Eonian Care Smart Double Electric Breast Pump lets you pump both breasts simultaneously, saving you time and boosting milk yield. It’s BPA-free which gives you added safety and extra peace of mind. This powerful pair is ideal for on-the-go mums with its rechargeable battery, neck strap, and handy USB cable.
Other than using breast pumps to express extra milk, you can also try the following to help relieve pain if you’re not breastfeeding.
- Wear a nice fitting bra such as the Eonian Care Hands-free Pumping & Nursing Bra. It offers mums multiple functionalities wherein it complements with breast pumps, helps you breastfeed, and even gives your breasts excellent support.
- Choose between hot compresses or ice packs to reduce swelling.
- If you don’t plan to continue breastfeeding, avoid expressing milk as this will signal your breasts to produce more milk.
- You can opt for over-the-counter pain medication. When in doubt, you can consult your healthcare provider.
- Try a famous home ready such as placing a refrigerated cabbage leaf on your bread held in place with a bra. This treatment may not work for some women.
- If you are still experiencing discomfort, try feeding your little bub in more than one position.
In summary, breast engorgement is not something you need to worry about. It’s easily treated by regularly breastfeeding or expressing milk via breast pumps.
However, on rare occasions when the pain and discomfort don’t go away, you might have a blocked milk duct or mastitis. These cases require a consultation with your healthcare provider.
