I am on another list where recurrent plugs/mastitis-near-misses were
recently discussed. Diane DiSandro has given me permission to share with
all of you her interesting post, which is below.
I hereby officially dub this the Diane DiSandro Breast Kneading Technique.
Now, to her message:
I developed this years ago when working with a 6 wk postpartum mom who was
starting her 3rd course of antibiotics for mastitis. Her mother and sister
had similar problems...and this mom wanted to wean, but couldn't even
accomplish that without mastitis. Nothing was working.
I imagined what would happen if there were a fibroid cyst or some other
structural anomaly lying on a milk duct, and repeatedly not allowing it to
drain properly. No matter how well we drained and treated it, the problem
would just keep happening.
So...instead of massaging the breast as usual (outer in towards nipple), I
had the mom imagine that her breast was a bag of marbles. She was to pick
up the breast and "knead" it, or rather "mush" it around.
Place the heels of your hands at the outer edge of breast (around 3 and 9
o'clock). Fingertips up slightly interlacing over the nipple. Now, knead
IN with your fingertips and also knead with your palms and thumbs. (Are you
doing it?)
The idea is to move each little marble a millimeter or so to the left or
right. Just a slight shift, since we can't really move them.
Do this 3-4x per day. In the morning shower, at lunchtime, dinnertime,
bedtime. Just move those little cysts (or whatever) a little bit, and
later, move them somewhere else a bit. At least that was my idea.
This mom went on to breastfeed for 2 1/2 years with no other mastitis.
Until her 2nd child was 8 days old. She called me in a panic and asked what
it was that we had done. We averted that mastitis, and she never got it
again. Her sister also nursed her 4th child (after suffering from recurrent
mastitis and 2 abscesses with the other children) with no problems.
I have used this technique with too many moms to count over the years now.
It really works well when everything else has been addressed and the
recurrent plugs or mastitis continue.
--Diane DiSandro IBCLC
Back to Liz now. Diane would love feedback from anyone who tries this. She
is not on Lactnet regularly, but if you post to me or to Lactnet, I will
pass along your comments.
Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC
Wyndmoor, PA, USA
***********************************************
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
