What is the cause of the hard lump in the breast during breastfeeding?

It is said that exclusive breastfeeding is good, so many mothers start to prepare for exclusive breastfeeding after giving birth. However, they find that it is not as simple as they imagined when they drink breast milk. First of all, if the breastfeeding posture is not well controlled, the adult will be tired, the baby will cry and make a fuss, and there will always be no milk. Why are there lumps in the breasts during breastfeeding?

What causes a hard lump in the breast during breastfeeding?

Did you drain all the milk during the first breastfeeding? Generally, some people do not drain all the milk in time, which causes milk congestion and small lumps. In this case, you must apply hot compresses and find ways to loosen the milk lumps and drain them out to prevent them from blocking the mammary ducts. However, a very small number of breast lumps may be space-occupying masses within the breast.

Breast hyperplasia is a common gynecological disease. The early symptoms of breast hyperplasia are mainly the growth of some lumps in different parts of the breast or high-incidence areas. The lumps are soft, have unclear boundaries, are movable, and are often accompanied by varying degrees of pain. The early symptoms of breast hyperplasia are especially before menstruation, after fatigue, or when there are emotional fluctuations such as anger (called qi stagnation in traditional Chinese medicine), the lump will enlarge and the pain will increase, while after menstruation the lump will significantly shrink and the pain will be relieved. The pain is usually a swelling pain, rarely aching pain.

Consider the lumps to be caused by milk stasis. The causes of milk stasis include: incomplete nipple development (too small or sunken) hindering breastfeeding; too much milk or the baby sucking less, resulting in incomplete milk discharge; blocked milk ducts affecting milk discharge. You can use boiling water to warm the area, do some local massage, and after feeding your baby, you can use a manual breast pump to help suck the nipple as much as possible. If the lump does not disappear, or if fever, unbearable pain, etc. occur, you need to go to the hospital for treatment and receive timely treatment under the guidance of a doctor to prevent mastitis.

Exclusive breastfeeding FAQs

Exclusive breastfeeding refers to the method of feeding your child with mother's breast milk. Studies have shown that breast milk contains energy, protein, fat, calcium, iron, vitamins, etc., and is the best choice for baby's growth and development.

Proper feeding posture:

The mother can completely relax herself, sit or lie down in a comfortable position, and can use pillows or mattresses to support herself or the baby when breastfeeding. Let the baby close to the mother, with his face facing the mother's breast and his nose facing the nipple. The baby's head and neck are in a straight line with the body, and the baby's abdomen is close to the mother's belly. If it is a newborn baby, the mother should support the baby's head, shoulders and buttocks.

The mother can pinch the breast hard and gently touch the baby's upper lip, wait for the baby's mouth to open wide, and quickly hold the baby close to the breast (without moving the mother's body), so that the baby can hold the nipple and the nipple at the same time, not just the nipple.

The use of medicines during breastfeeding is prohibited:

When taking medication during breastfeeding, people usually only consider whether the medication affects milk secretion, rarely consider the effect of the medication on the baby, or don't know what medications may affect the baby at all. In fact, many drugs can enter the baby's body through the mother's breast milk, and then cause harm to the infant. Although the concentration of some drugs entering the breast milk is very low, the harm to the baby is relatively serious.