Good Evening All,
Have a question for our lawyers, and a related question for those of you with
more knowledge about the internal workings of the breast than I.

A mom I am working with had an unpleasant happening last night.  Her
ex-boyfriend, and father of her 3 yr old and 7wk old, came to her house drunk
and got physical with her.  I don't know the full extent of the physical
assault, but she did tell me that he grabbed both of her breasts and squeezed
really hard.  She is now in a lot of pain and is having a hard time getting
any milk out.  She can't BF the baby because it hurts, and pumping is also
painful (she has only pumped twice and it hurt for the first 5 minutes and
then slowly tapered off.)  We discussed the problem of possible engorgement
due to lack of milk removal, also possible blocked milk ducts because of the
trauma.  She is unable to gently feel her breasts for lumps because they hurt
so badly.  She says there is no blood coming out in the milk she was able to
get out.  I told her she should go to the Dr.
Just a bit of past history on this mom:  Her baby was 5 weeks prem, and has
had a hard time learning to BF.  Just within the last 6 days baby was
starting to refuse the bottle in favor of moms breast.  Mom is having a hard
time coping (she is 19 and single w/2 kids)  and she has at times left the
baby with a friend for a couple days to regroup, but didn't pump as she
should have so has been having a hard time keeping her milk supply stable and
up enough to feed the baby.  She is afraid of losing her milk supply, so is
trying as best she can.  We just started the baby on an SNS last week because
she wouldn't stay at breast long.  A before and after BF weight check
verified that baby was not sucking effectively enough to get a good milk
transfer.  The SNS seems to have helped her get stronger, and stay at breast
longer doing more effective sucking.  There have been other issues with this
dyad, and mom has been under considerable stress.
Now for the questions:

1)  What is the possible damage to the internal anatomy of the breast and
what possible problems should we expect/look for?  Is it possible for what
the ex-boyfriend to permanently compromise this moms milk supply?
2)  What measures can we take to help alleviate her pain?  Obviously she has
serious bruising internally.  She did report a large vein onthe top of one
breast that looked as if it was going to pop.  It was not there before the
injury.  Comments on this too, please.

3)  For our lawyers:
Besides assault, if this mom does lose her milk production because of this
injury can she sue the man responsible, and if so can you tell me the proper
terminology to use in pressing charges?

Please help, this is a crisis situation and we need help ASAP!
TIA TIA TIA!
Jay
She who is sick of abusive a-------es and thinks they should all be shot.