Many years ago, I was called by a mom who wanted to know "how to wean".
She sounded like she was in a complete panic, so I tried to soothe her
and the story I elicited from her left me horrified. She was nursing a
baby of a few weeks and noticed a plugged duct. She went to her GP who
sent her to an OB who sent her to a surgeon. The surgeon aspirated the
"lump" and just guess what was the aspirate? - oh, dear me! it was milk!
I don't even know what the mother was told, but she came home
half-hysterical and just wanted to STOP BREASTFEEDING. After a trauma
like that, who can blame her? I tried to calmly explain that she should
taper off bfing and not cold turkey, since this could set her up for
unpleasantness. I tried to get her to remember what could possibly have
led up to or caused the plugged duct, and perhaps she might be willing to
continue bfing and have no further incidents by avoiding situations
leading to the plugged duct, etc. I was so shocked by the trauma this
woman had undergone by being passed from one ignorant physician to
another that my counselling was quite a mixed bag of support for
continuing and support for stopping. One of those calls I'll never forget.
Judy Knopf