A lactation consultant -- a specialist in breastfeeding education -- can give simple tips that have allowed women with inverted nipples to breastfeed successfully.
Breast engorgement. Breast fullness is natural and healthy. It happens as your breasts become full of milk, staying soft and pliable. But breast engorgement means the blood vessels in your breast have become congested. This traps fluid in your breasts and makes them feel hard, painful, and swollen. Alternate heat and cold, for instance using ice packs and hot showers, to relieve mild symptoms. It can also help to release your milk by hand or use a breast pump.
Blocked ducts. A single sore spot on your breast, which may be red and hot, can signal a plugged milk duct. This can often be relieved by warm compresses and gentle massage over the area to release the blockage. More frequent nursing can also help.
Breast infection (mastitis). This occasionally results when bacteria enter the breast, often through a cracked nipple after breastfeeding. If you have a sore area on your breast along with flu-like symptoms, fever, and fatigue, call your doctor. Antibiotics are usually needed to clear up a breast infection, but you can most likely continue to breastfeed while you have the infection and take antibiotics. To relieve breast tenderness, apply moist heat to the sore area four times a day for 15 to 20 minutes each time.
Stress. Being overly anxious or stressed can interfere with your let-down reflex. That's your body's natural release of milk into the milk ducts. It's triggered by hormones released when your baby nurses. It can also be triggered just by hearing your baby cry or thinking about your baby. Stay as relaxed and calm as possible before and during nursing -- it can help your milk let down and flow more easily. That, in turn, can help calm and relax your infant.
Premature babies may not be able to breastfeed right away. In some cases, mothers can release breast milk and feed it through a bottle or feeding tube.
Warning signs. Breastfeeding is a natural, healthy process. But call your doctor if:
Your breasts become unusually red, swollen, hard, or sore.
You have unusual discharge or bleeding from your nipples.
You're concerned your baby isn't gaining weight or getting enough milk.
Stressed enough already? Million of women brestfeed their children around the globe and enjoy a full healthy life, both themselves and their precious little ones ...
Is breastfeeding an obscene?
In a society where you have the opportunity to run at any time, via web and magazines to porn material of any kind and satisfy any of needs you may have, are you able at least to define the difference of an erotic breast licking and sucking to the significant role breastfeeding has for the safe and healthy development of a child? Remember you also have been one !!! Why then, when watching a mother feeding her child with her bear breast, makes you uncomfortable?