I posted in early June about a mother with a lump under her armpit.  She had
found the lump in her 7th month of pregnancy, the lump was still there
postpartum.  Her OB had examined it and referred her to a surgeon.  The
surgeon saw her in the hospital, then also at 4 weeks postpartum.  The lump
was still there and the surgeon said the only way to determine for sure what
it was would be to perform a biopsy.  The mother declined this and decided
to wait it out since the lump was not growing.  I had asked for advice from
this list regarding what this could be.  Several people responded and I
wanted to give you an update.

At 7 weeks postpartum, the mother became engorged on her right side, the
same side which had the lump.  That night she was examining the lump while
lying in bed and felt some wetness under her arm.  She ran to the bathroom
and was so relieved to see the "wetness" was milk!  She was able to squirt
milk from one place under her arm; a few days later there were two hair
follicles which have milk coming out.  The mother was relieved to find that
this lump is, indeed, supernumerary breast tissue rather than a malignancy
of some sort.  She had a visit with her OB a few days later and her OB was
also glad this "problem" had been diagnosed by the mother.

A happy ending.  This seemed to be a bit different than what I'd read in
some places about supernumerary tissue since this was her third pregnancy,
the lump appeared during the 7th month and no milk could be expressed until
7 weeks after the birth.  She does not have any moles or anything resembling
a nipple under her arm.  Now she is just trying to get the milk supply dried
up - she's going to buy some green cabbage at the grocery store today.  Any
other ideas?

Thanks to those who suggested ideas about this mom previously - several
people did wonder if she had supernumerary tissue!

Mary Anderson, Doula
Lincoln, Nebraska

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