I have had two moms, back to back, who did not have a lot of swelling before
delivery, but during and after developed it pretty badly. What seems strange
to me is that both of them have complained that it has been getting worse
(3-4 day mark). One mom's milk was simply not coming in and baby was already
more than a pound below BW; the other mom has had super-breast growth,
38DD-38KK, baby struggles to latch, and her breasts were distended to the
point that she had bilateral pau d'orange. I've never seen this latter
phenomena before, and I've always read about it in the context of abscesses
or cancer. I can tell you for a fact, however, that hers is related to edema
+ engorgement.

Anyone seen this edema that gets worse? I did suggest watermelon for both
and cabbage for the engorged mom. What's going on here?

On those KK breasts; they are just so big and round as well as long, that it
is hard for mom to be able to see her nipple, let alone get baby lined up.
Her belly is still large, and lay upon that those breasts and you have great
difficulty putting mom and babe together. We switched to laying down, and I
was able to get baby on after a bit of coaxing; however, mom is not able to
see around herself well enough yet, and dad did not work out as a
latch-helper (willing, but timing and finesse weren't there). Anyone worked
through this before?

-Lisa Marasco, BA, IBCLC

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