09/10/2025
This was the liquid gold my patient took home today from our appointment!
A lovey family came to see me today, day 3 post partum. Baby initially latched and fed well, until mum’s milk came in hard and fast. Over the course of several hours her breasts became very engorged and difficult to latch on. Due to the lack of milk removal, a vicious cycle started and baby became more lethargic, reduced nappies and onset of jaundice. The swelling of the breast reduced the milk flow to a point where it became too difficult for baby to remove any milk.
What I did to help this mum:
I applied lymphatic drainage massage techniques and reduced the oedema. Once the breast softened, the milk started flowing and I removed around 15ml from both breasts. We then proceeded to latch baby on to both breasts with the exaggerated latch technique. Baby was finally feeding to his heart’s content for a good 20 minutes with visible and audible sucks and swallows from both breasts. Mum experienced no pain and baby released the breast, completely content. Bay had lost 11.3% of his birthweight, so we made a plan to ensure baby feeds every 2.5 hours, offering both breasts. She will also continue lymphatic drainage and apply ice compresses to her breast to reduce swelling. The midwife will come see him tomorrow, I am sure he will have recovered some of the weightloss. It was my clinical decision based on the feed I have observed not to send him to hospital for assessment as I was not concerned about this baby. He was alert, good skin turgor, no sunken fontanelle and he was feeding like an absolute champ. A readmission at this point could well mean the end of the breastfeeding journey as it is my experience that families are, without observation of a breastfeed, put on a strict supplementation plan, often with massive amounts of formula (even if plenty of breastmilk is available). I will closely monitor over the next few days but my gut tells me this will end well 🙂🤱
