ChristMastitis
Christmas is a beautiful time of year to show off your new baby to your family. All those extended Aunt’s Uncles and Grandparents ready for a snuggle with your sweet baby!
This is all absolutely wonderful, however did you know that the highest incidence of mastitis is on Boxing Day? The day after big events is a really common time for mastitis to occur.
Why does this happen? At home, Mum and Baby do lots of regular, frequent feeds, often taking their time and having lots of boobie snuggles. But when your baby is being passed around and held by everyone else, maybe being kept quiet or asleep in those loving grandma arms, you may find that you accidentally skip a feed, or you feel bad taking the baby back, so you go longer between feeds. Another thing that can happen to our lovely Mums who are doing a million things, organising all the joy, presents and food, is that we get a bit burnout and don’t get enough rest or food and hydration for ourselves.
How do we avoid this?
Prevention is better than cure!
Remember to keep your feeds regular, if that means you need to duck off somewhere quiet to feed or whip a breast out at the dinner table, so be it! Baby needs to eat too!
If you find yourself getting fuller and uncomfortable, get your baby back and feed!
Older babies (from 3 months up) can be really distracted at the breast when there are a lot of people around, so you may need to sit in a darker quiet space to stop them from popping on and off so much!
Let people take care of you - Bring you food and water. Soak up the time being a new Mum and let people dot on you for a change!
If you find yourself with mastitis symptoms, eat and drink well, feed as per your normal schedule, you can alternate Panadol for pain and Nurofen for inflammation, ice those breasts to reduce inflammation and get lots of rest between feeds, try not to overdo it.
If symptoms worsen you may need to see your GP for antibiotics. I also recommend that if you have been prone to Mastitis and you are going overseas and healthcare is hard to source, you may want to see you GP and get a script for antibiotics filled, take them with you and use them if you need them.
If you are expecting, consider taking a breastfeeding class which I hold monthly in North Curl Curl to prepare you for everything you need to know about feeding and those critical days and weeks postpartum.
For any feeding concerns, book an in-home lactation consultation where we can go through everything that has happened so far and do a full feeding assessment to help you with a plan moving forward.
Much love and Happy Holidays to you all. Peta x
