dear annelies,

i just spoke to a women this week who has reduced output in one breast. about
the third day postpartum, she was severely engorged and went to the doctor's
office. they told her to go home and massage the breast and try to express
milk. her husband massaged her breast for her and apparently did so to
violently, because she became terribly bruised. after that, a portion of her
breast would not reduce the engorgement, and apparently did not produce the
milk, either, because they seem to have dried up. she can see the area of her
breast get larger now, while the other part does not, and she produces less on
that breast pumping than the other one (yes, bad breastfeeding management is
going on here, too). she refers to this as her "broken" breast and the other
as her "good" breast. i am wondering if this area would function again
properly after another pregnancy. she apparently tried to build up the milk
supply by using fenugreek and other techniques, but they did not affect this
situation on this side.

and she also mentioned that she had had terrible gas when breastfeeding
(sounds like the women with diarrhea), and had even scheduled a visit with a
gastroenterologist (wow, a great opportunity for breastfeeding to be
sacrificed on the altar of ignorance), which she canceled because the problem
is slowly resolving itself.

she was one of those callers that says, i have only two little quick
questions. those are the ones that are always on for hours because they have
many great big huge problems.

carol b.