I had mastitis 9 times in a 4 month period with my third child. I think it was a combination of physical and mental stress. I lost 3 members of my family in a murder/suicide when Cody was only 10 days old. I was livng 450 miles away and had to make the trip to the funeral then. I had to work with the FBI, SBI, Bureau of Firearms, etc over the next year, administer the estate and help to maintain my elderly parents emotional state from that distance. I had to drive back and forth every 2-3 weeks with a nursing infant. I found that wearing the seatbelt for those long periods caused plugged ducts, and I wasn't drinking enough water (and was overloading on coffee), wasn't getting any rest and was doing very badly on my nutrition. Findly my husband said "whatever you tell mothers to do, do it yourself!".
I have memory loss from a lot of that period, and cannot remember any of Cody's develoment from that day until he was about 6 months old.
I ended up going to bed for a week with the baby, geting a mother's helper, drinking lots of water, eating alot of fresh fruits, and taking vitamins and a 30 day course of an antibiotic.

Barbara Whitehead, IBCLC
Eastern NC

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