Colleagues,

After many months of "lurking", this is the second request to you in the same day.  Can anyone offer any suggestions or advice?

I have a client who is 6 months pregnant with her second child.  Six weeks after the delivery of her first baby, she developed a severe mastitis that required prolonged treatment with intravenous antibiotics.  Eventually, she breastfed the baby exclusively on the opposite breast.  The baby thrived and was breastfed for a year.

Since her mastitis, the affected breast has become quite lumpy to feel and hasn't grown as much as the unaffected breast with this pregnancy.  She is terrified of breastfeeding the baby she is expecting in three months on the breast she developed the mastitis in.  

Any suggestions?  My first thought is to give her support and encouragement to feed exclusively on the unaffected breast, but does anyone know what her odds are of developing mastitis in the same breast if she chooses to use it again.  If she doesn't feed the baby with it, will she develop mastitis when her breasts become more full after initiating lactation?

Suggestions??  Comments??

TIA!

Jeanne Hagreen, RN, BSN, IBCLC
Prince George, BC, CANADA
"One LC in the wilderness"

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