Is it normal to have lumps in your breasts while breastfeeding?

After giving birth, during the breastfeeding stage, you will often feel a lump in the breast that contains breast milk. This symptom can be considered as normal breast tissue. If a lump appears on one side and is accompanied by low milk supply, breast tenderness, and nipple pain, it may be a cyst or tumor. The specific factors need to be checked in the hospital. If breast symptoms appear, do not insist on breastfeeding your baby.

Normal breast tissue

Some mothers will feel a large lump when they squeeze their breasts up and down with their palms. If there are lumps of similar size in the same position on both breasts, it is generally normal breast tissue. No action required.

Milk stasis, milk retention cyst

If the milk is not removed on time, or the breasts are too large and the milk ducts are twisted, or there is improper squeezing during sleep, or the child sucks the nipple in an incorrect position, or the breast pump is used improperly, etc., it will lead to milk congestion and breast lumps. This lump is usually accompanied by increased skin temperature, redness of the skin surface, or even fever. If this kind of lump appears, please come to my clinic for treatment.

Benign breast tumors such as fibroadenomas

If you have had a breast ultrasound before pregnancy and found a lump somewhere in your breast, and you didn't have surgery to remove it, and the lump was stimulated by a large amount of sex hormones during pregnancy, causing the lump to grow rapidly. If you feel it during breastfeeding, you need to observe: Is the lump in the same position as before pregnancy? Is it smooth? Is the activity level good? If both are present, it is usually considered a benign breast mass. You can drain the milk and then go to the hospital for an ultrasound. This lump is not treated until after breastfeeding ends.

Malignant breast tumor

If a hard lump appears with unclear boundaries, accompanied by nipple bleeding, and without changes in skin temperature or color, there is a possibility of breast cancer. If a lump is found together with enlarged axillary and inguinal lymph nodes, and abnormalities are found in routine blood tests, the possibility of lymphoma should be considered. You need to go to the hospital for examination and treatment in time.