I think it would be interesting to do an actual study on recent trends in
breastfeeding and etiology of mastitis.  Since I went into practice through
Elizabeth Seton, I have been tracking outcomes very carefully.  NONE of the
clients I saw who went on to develop mastitis were pumping at the time they
developed the mastitis.  Some of these were able to alleviate the symptoms
through pumping. The mothers who were pumping because of acquired or
inherent low supply did not develop mastitis.  Several of the mothers who
developed mastitis had babies with tight frenulums. And at one point I was
developing a complete paranoia about resistant organisms originating from
hospital births (with no evidence-based statistics to back up my
paranoia).  I think we need a broader sample than the clientele that any
one of us may see because we may not be getting a complete picture!
Certainly, I could not extrapolate from my clientele to say anything about
the larger breastfeeding population.

Just as we may not see the whole picture when we see clients who have
previously seen another lactation consultant, we may not be seeing the
whole picture because our style of practice may attract a certain type of
client!

Susan E. Burger, PhD, MHS, IBCLC

PS.  My sample size of two women who quit due to bacterial breast
infections and zero women who quit because of low supply - now has been
increased to two more women who quit because of low supply - one during the
blackout. So much for extrapolation of results from a small sample size!

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