Breast pain when baby is breastfeeding

Being a mother is a very hard job. After ten months of pregnancy and giving birth, you still have to breastfeed and feed the baby. Breastfeeding mothers often have problems with insufficient breast milk or breast congestion. Some breastfeeding mothers may even suffer from mastitis, which makes them feel even more uncomfortable. Some mothers feel tingling in their breasts when feeding their babies. What is going on? How should we alleviate it?

Reason 1: Lactation reflex

Women who become mothers for the first time may not be used to breastfeeding yet, so they may experience brief pain when their babies suck milk. But mothers don’t need to worry about this kind of pain. It is a normal physiological process. As you become more skilled in feeding your baby, the pain will naturally disappear.

Reason 2: Excessive milk secretion

The elders are afraid that the mother’s milk supply is not enough for the baby, so they let the mother eat foods that help produce milk. However, excessive milk secretion is not a good thing either, and it can also cause pain in the mother’s breasts. The baby is still young and does not understand anything. He needs to be taught everything. If mothers keep secreting milk while sucking milk, the baby will keep sucking without restraint. Therefore, mothers should not let the baby do whatever he wants when breastfeeding. They should guide the child to suck breast milk correctly. This can also reduce breast pain and reduce milk waste.

Reason 3: Mastitis

A mother's breasts are responsible for maintaining the healthy growth of her child, so it is important to maintain the health of her breasts. But there are many bacteria and fungi in our daily lives, including in our baby's mouth. The breasts are extremely fragile. If the baby does not suck milk correctly, there is a possibility that the mother's nipples will be bitten, and the damaged nipples are very susceptible to bacterial infection. Moreover, if the mother accidentally gets sick, it will affect the health of her breasts and cause bacterial infection, and then the breasts will become red, painful, and inflamed. If not handled properly, it will cause mastitis.

Reason 4: Using the breast pump incorrectly

New mothers think that the absence of a drop of milk in the breast means that the baby has sucked up all the milk in the breast. However, there is a situation where the mother's breasts continue to secrete milk even after the baby is full. The milk accumulates in the breasts and forms lumps, so mothers will use a breast pump to suck out the milk. Frequent use of a breast pump can also cause breast tenderness and nipple redness and swelling. If mothers secrete too much milk, they just need to change the breastfeeding method and let the baby empty one side before feeding the other.

Reason 5: Wrong sleeping posture, compressing the breasts

The correct sleeping position is to sleep on your right side, but sleeping on your side during breastfeeding will cause lumps in the breasts, because when sleeping on your side the upper breast will press on the lower breast. Over time, the compressed breast will squeeze out milk and produce lumps. Therefore, mothers cannot sleep in a fixed sleeping position. Changing sleeping positions frequently can also relieve breast pain.

Reason 6: Blockage of milk hole

The blockage of the nipple will be obvious and easy to detect. One of its biggest characteristics is that there will be a small white spot on the nipple. Your breasts may hurt when your baby is feeding. Mothers don't need to panic at this time. Breast pain caused by this reason is very easy to solve. Just use the needle tip of a sewing needle to slowly rotate the small white spot until the lump disappears. The only thing you need to pay attention to when using this method is that the sewing needle must be disinfected with iodine before use, and the nipple also needs to be disinfected.