Coach Smith back again. My point about heat / cold treatments on lactating
breasts is this: Rarely are ANY thermal treatments necessary or even
appropriate. Find the cause of the problem first!

*	If there's too much milk in the breast, remove some milk.
*	If there's infection, treat the infection.
*	If there's edema, cold MIGHT help, if cold is acceptable to and
tolerated by the mother.
*	If there's mechanical compression, remove or correct the source of
the compression.
*	And so on.

 

Nikki is right - there's currently only one bit of research on use of cold
on lactating breasts, and that's Cynthia Sandberg's Masters' thesis, which
she presented at ILCA one year. The numbers in her study were small, and the
mothers who tested thermal treatments on their own breasts found that the
pain relief from cold lasted longer than no treatment or use of warmth.
There is NO study supporting use of heat on lactating breasts for any
reason.

 

Breasts are not ankles, yet many of the principles of edema, infection (etc)
apply to all body tissues, even milk-producing glands. We can cautiously
consider therapies used on other body tissues, as long as we realize that
until solid research is done on lactating breasts, we cannot automatically
assume that therapies used on other body tissues are appropriate for
lactating breasts.

 

Let's strive hard to prevent breast and nipple instead of arguing about
remedies for treating pain when it occurs. The BEST prevention for virtually
all breast and nipple pain is a combination of good nutrition during
pregnancy; unmedicated birth; baby-to-breast skin-to-skin in the first hour;
frequent and adequate milk removal preferably by the baby; and emotional
support for the mother. Regardless of what happened during the pregnancy &
birth, the baby should be skin-to-skin on mother's body within minutes of
birth unless one or both need to be resuscitated. 

 

And bravo to all who are researching lactating breasts! 

 

Linda J. Smith, BSE, FACCE, IBCLC

Bright Future Lactation Resource Centre Ltd.

6540 Cedarview Ct, Dayton OH 45459 USA

(937) 438-9458 / fax (937) 438-3229

 <http://www.BFLRC.com> www.BFLRC.com

 


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