Kathy - this sounds AWFUL!  My understanding is that the wound IS left open
to heal after an abscess so that it may drain.  The very few abscesses that
I've been unfortunate enough to follow up seem to heal VERY slowly, milk
leaks for WEEKS, but mothers are encouraged to continue draining milk from
the affected breast.  If the incision is too close to the areola for the
baby to nurse then perhaps the mother could pump?  The milk may or may not
be given to the baby, depending, but drainage facilitates healing.  Perhaps
it would be possible to so position the pump flange that the side of it
"splinted" the incision, but the breast could be well drained, at frequent
intervals - less pressure, continued drainage of milk and potential
infection ...  The wound is irrigated several times daily, one client was
told to do this with Betadine wash (not sure about the effects of iodine??).
Dressings must be changed as soon as they become wet with leaking milk.

There is absolutely no benefit to anyone in suppressing lactation and/or
weaning - mothers I have worked with have occasionally WANTED to wean
because of the distress/mess etc, but have been encouraged by the surgeon
NOT to consider this until the incision has healed.  I worked once with a
mother whose abscess had affected one-third of the breast, she eventually
elected to discontinue nursing from that breast once the incision had
healed, but finally weaned her baby from the other breast lO months later.
The surgeon advised me that she had a 3O% chance of another abscess with a
subsequent lactation, she had another baby two years later, we paid
meticulous attention to prevention of engorgement as the milk came in, she
treated the breast with the respect it deserved, NEVER allowing it to become
overfull and never once suffered any problems with it.  She found, however,
that it never produced as much milk.

Encourage your brave mother to carry on nursing the way she wants to,but I
would think about advocating drainage of the affected breast - this will
INCREASE the amount of milk produced so that drainage must be maintained,
but it should heal faster.

Pamela, Zimbabwe