Hello all:

I saw a recent post about leaking and mastitis during pregnancy.  I had never
heard of this before and I was just about to ask you all about this
(mastitis) anyway.  I was just contacted by a woman who is 20 weeks pregnant
and has had mastitis and treated twice, but it "hasn't worked", according to
her.

She asks "Do you have any ideas why I have it and what I can do to get rid of
it?  Also, will I still be able to breastfeed? Please help!!"

I wasn't sure how to answer her as I had not ever heard of this before.  So I
asked an OB who gave me these ideas/suggestions to pass on to her:

<<1.      Is this really mastitis?  You might ask her to be certain she has
inflammation, warmth, low-grade fever, etc consistent with mastitis.  She
could have some underlying condition such as a breast abscess, even a cancer
that appears to be a mastitis since it is unusual to have mastitis at 20
weeks.  She may want to consider going to a general surgeon or someone who
specializes in breast disease if there is any suggestion of these things
2.      Is she still breast-feeding from a previous pregnancy?  If so, that
would make mastitis a little more likely at this time.>> She isn't.
<<3.      What antibiotics has she tried?  Usually the organisms that cause
mastitis are some type of staph and frequently resistent to antibiotics such
as ampicillin or cephalosporins that are commonly used.  Suggest that before
she give up on antibiotics, she try dicloxicillin which is specific for the
type of staph commonly associated with mastitis.
4.      I doubt this will make her unlikely to breastfeed.>>

Can anybody think of anything else I should pass on??  This was an
interesting question for me.

Thanks so much for your help!

Melissa, RN, LC
Seattle