<From the very beginning I had wonder if because the nipple anatomy was abnormal could there be areas of the breast not draining, no outlets, and causing all the problems. .... Where did I go wrong, what should I have seen or done differently? > Crystal, You are probably right to think that her anatomy may have played a part in poor drainage of the breast. But there is no reason to think you should have done something differently. We have to remember that mastitis (when it is infective) is usually caused by Staphylococcus aureus and this is an organism that has a tendency to develop abscesses. Most likely the surgeon would have sent specimens to the lab, which would have identified the S. aureus as MRSA if this was the case. For a discussion of breast abscesses see my article in BJOG: Amir LH, Forster D, McLachlan H, Lumley J. Incidence of breast abscess in lactating women: report from an Australian cohort. BJOG. 2004 Dec;111(12):1378-81. Lisa Amir, MBBS MMed, IBCLC in Melbourne, Australia *********************************************** 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