Twice this week I have had mothers call and report blood in their milk.
 These are not new mommys with bleeding nipples.  Both have had mastitis.

Mother #1 has had repeated mastitis, plugged ducts, etc - Iwrote about her in
the past with concerns about puffiness in her breasts, yeast possibilities,
etc.  I wanted her to get a mammogram and check for cancer but the doctor
gave one more round of antibiotics and the problems resolved, for a time.
 She continued with minor plugged ducts around her menstrual cycle but they
resolved easily the past two cycles.  This month the plugs wouldn't resolve
and again became red, warm, painful.  In addition, mom was massaging and
pumping to try to clear the plug and her milk was blood tinged.  I have
already referred this mom for evaluation from a breast surgeon.

Mother #2 - 1st breast infection ever one week ago.  She has been
uncomfortable with breastfeeding baby from the infected side all along and
has been doing pumping on that side to keep it drained, nothing overzealous,
just every 3 hours or so.  Then baby slept through the 4:00 am feeding and
mother got up to pump.  She got blood tinged milk.  She's been on antibiotics
for about 7 days.  Symptoms had improved and she has been feeling much
better.  What do you think?  Should I be alarmed and refer her for further
evaluation or do you think it would be irritation from the original breast
infection.

I appreciated your input.  I will continue to research this elsewhere.

Denise Parker, BA, IBCLC (La Crescenta, CA)