# Surviving extreme engorgement



## hairpin (Aug 28, 2005)

Hi. I had a baby just a few days ago, and I'm on the fourth day with my new babe. I have been having problems nursing at the hospital and at home, getting baby to latch on, interest from him in general, and keeping him awake for feedings. I have semi-flat nipples and the baby was thought to have drank amniotic fluid (making him sleepy/fidgety). So nursing didn't get started until later than optimal. I didn't have access to my pump at the hospital and didn't think it was necessary.

In any case, I've come to the point where I am so engorged and my breasts are hard like a rock, so that I can't get the baby to nurse. As well I am in the stage between colustrum and milk. So I can't express anything with my pump at home. For a while I was expressing colustrum and feeding it to him. But that is empty and nothing is coming out of my breasts. Yet it's even more painful and hard than before. One of the lactation consultatants mentioned that my breasts are probably just engorged with blood.

So... we're temporarily using formula to feed our babe until what I have converts to milk.

I am doing small circular massage from outside of breast to nipple and taking painkillers. Can anyone recommend something to help me through this time? I'm really uncomfortable and scared things are going to get worse.


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## krizty (Dec 31, 2005)

You need to stop feeding formula. That's just going to make your problem worse. It is hard for some people to bf. Just keep trying. It takes practice for baby and mama to learn!


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## Wooly (Mar 27, 2006)

i had hugely engored boobies , my babe found it hard to latch , but i had a super wicked midwife , she explained it like this , could you suck on a football for long without your face slippin off? Nope i couldn't eitherr , it's too hard and round ,give your baby a lil' hand , express a little off by hand ( you can do this into a sterile container if you wanna give ebm or into a towel ( i found this easier as learning all this is tricky enough) then when your booby has softened slightly , latch that baba on and nurse nurse nurse. If you still have problems ( my let down was fierce and i mean gushy ... babies get used to it but may find it tricky when ickle ) you can manage your milk supply by nursing from the same breast twice ( or in my case three consecutive sessions) untill your brain gets the message that this is how much baby needs in one go and slows them boobies down) , read up on it , talk to your lactation councillor / midwife and above all nurse cos your body will work it out soon enough! HTH Good luck!


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## TForce (Jul 27, 2005)

Congratulations on the new baby!

Being so engorged means you probably have a great supply which is wonderful. My baby boy was hesitant to nurse on day three when my milk came in, and I freaked out as well. Eventually he did start nursing and has not stopped since. In retrospect I probably should have pumped a bit before putting him on the breast. That will ease the forceful let-down for baby.

I would hold off on formula if you can because after having formula your baby will be less likely to want to nurse (not hungry).

Good luck! I miss having a newborn. It all happens so fast. Keep putting baby to the breast. Eventually the nursing kinks will work themselves out if you keep trying.

I imagine you will have a huge supply like I did. The PP suggested one-sided nursing. Once you get going with the nursing, that really worked well for me to normalize my supply


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## Peppamint (Oct 19, 2002)

With my first I had a lot of trouble, I think the IV swelled me up waaaay too much. Anyway, I had to do a lot of massage in the shower (hot water) and stuff just to soften my breasts enough for dd to latch on. In the end we used a nipple shield for a few weeks so she could latch on.

I'm not sure I understand why you're supplementing and not pumping. Did the LC recommend this? If so, I'd find someone else! It's all supply and demand so if you don't start nursing or pumping you will lose your milk... and in the meantime you're at risk for mastitis.

I agree with pp, once you get baby latched on, go for block feedings (feed baby only from one side for 2 hour period and then other side for 2 hour period... or whatever time frame works best).


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## narnie (Mar 6, 2006)

I had issues at first with engorgement with both of my boys. With my first DS who was born in 1996, I received terrible advice. I was young, going through a tough time and-- as a result ended up with terrible PPD. Anyway I was very engorged and in alot of pain--a nurse came out to our house and she said basically I was doing it all wrong and until I could get it right I would have to supplement with formula..at that time my DS was having jaundice issues as well. I was scared. BF was very important to me but I felt like I was hurting my DS cause I couldn't do it right...I started to supplement and my milk ended up drying up. I felt terrible







Made PPD even worse. Anyway we got through it and he is a healthy ten year old now... but when I got pg again I knew I wanted to get more info so that the smae thing didn't happen.

With my second DS I just kept putting him to my breast as often as I could stand it. It hurt in the beginning. Kept working on my latch... You definitely will work out kinks just as you go. In the begining when I was engorged it helped my DS to latch on if I just compresseed my breast to allow him to get on...an LC explained to me it was like you or I trying to take a bite out of a big sandwich--we would smush it together to help us bite into it







Anyway my best advice is to keep nursing and nursing and nursing... For me it was tough for the first 3 weeks and then just when I thought this wont get better...it did







And it is SO worth it.

Congratulations on your little one. Keep us updated.


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## InDaPhunk (Jun 24, 2005)

Get in the shower and put a hand towel on your breasts and let the hot water run on them until you start to get milk out- usually takes a couple of minutes. Mush on your breasts -gently- to get enough out so that you feel comfortable and you don't feel so engorged. This will make you more comfy and alllow your DC to latch on.

Then go nurse your baby. Breathe, relax, get help from a LC, whatever it takes. Be patient. If your baby's arms get in the way, hold them- or get help holding them- down so that he can reach your nipples. Those newborns can be squirmy.

When you're finished nursing- or if you've just expressed some milk in the shower for comfort- then put cold wetpacks, on top of a moist towel- on your breasts. This will keep you from getting more engorged. Don't do it for long- only a couple of minutes on each side, because you don't want to risk losing any supply.

If your baby is having a hard time getting the nipple in his mouth, pump for just long enough so that your nipple get elongated a little. I'm talking a minute here.

I had to do all of these things to treat massive engorgement. I don't really know if what I did was right but it got me through those first challenging days. Do everything you can to stop the supplementing and get your child to nurse. Everything. It should be your #1 job right now. For the first 2 weeks of my DS's life, all I did was sleep, eat, nurse, and shower for engorgement. That's it. Getting that baby to nurse and nurse well is your _main job_ right now. Think of it as your purpose for living. Forget everything else. Good luck!


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## justmandy (Sep 3, 2004)

Boy have I been there! On day 4 after my 1st son I had "porn-star boobs" Man they hurt, were HEAVY and after ds did latch on he usually gagged on the faucet like flow of milk. What a great problem! It could be the other way around.

I understand your reaching for the formula-not a bad idea if you only use it to get babe past the hystarical hungry (once or twice/day) and then practice nursing. I had to do the same thing b/c it was a vicous cycle of him being so hungry it hurt my heart, then I was so exhausted and sad I ended up frustrated and angry with him-stupid pp hormones. DO NOT however use formula for a full feeding or more then once or twice a day. You will make your engorgement problem worse and he'll take longer to learn.

Try taking a hot shower right before babe needs to eat, you will be more comfortable and he'll have an esier time latching on.

Call LLL or the lactation consultant at your hospital, they love to help new mamas.


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## sunnysideup (Jan 9, 2005)

Have you tried contact your local LLL Leader? I'm sure you could get some great advise and help from LLL.

Quote:

I've come to the point where I am so engorged and my breasts are hard like a rock, so that I can't get the baby to nurse. As well I am in the stage between colustrum and milk. So I can't express anything with my pump at home. For a while I was expressing colustrum and feeding it to him. But that is empty and nothing is coming out of my breasts. Yet it's even more painful and hard than before. One of the lactation consultatants mentioned that my breasts are probably just engorged with blood.

So... we're temporarily using formula to feed our babe until what I have converts to milk.
It's pretty risky to your milk supply to use formula and just wait for your milk to come in. When you don't nurse your baby you are not telling your body to make milk, and your supply could be seriously negatively effected, possibly even dry up completely. You say you're not able to express with your pump. What kind of pump do you have? Some women have a hard time getting much for the pump, and some pumps are less effective than others. I never could get much milk with a pump, except whe I rented a hospital grade one (that worked like a charm).

Quote:

I have semi-flat nipples
Have you tried using breast shells to help draw out the nipple? Using a good breast pump before feeding can also help draw out the nipple and make easier to get your baby latched.


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## PABDIBCLC (Apr 18, 2006)

First of all use cold compresses to reduce the engorgement, not warm. Second, find a local board certified lactation consultant to come work with you to get the baby latch-on properly. you can locate one at : www.iblce.org or www.ilca.org


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## Bookworm (Oct 6, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *hairpin*
So... we're temporarily using formula to feed our babe until what I have converts to milk.

This may not happen properly without frequent nursing from your baby. That's what tells your body to make the milk.

I looked up La Leche League in your area, since I know it is too hard to find time to search right now:

California:
http://www.lalecheleague.org/Web/California.html

San Francisco area:
http://members.aol.com/lllpeninsula/#SF1

Am PMing you the phone numbers of the La Leche League leaders for San Francisco.


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## Fiercemama (May 30, 2003)

Sorry to offer conflicting advice, but I would try warm compresses (or dunking your breast in a large bowl of very warm water, it can be a bit much to jump into the shower before every nursing session) just before hand-expressing (or pumping) off just enough milk so that you can soften the breast just enough to allow baby to latch on. Use cold compresses between sessions to reduce pain and swelling.

Get in touch with LLL and/or a good IBCLC. Hang in there - you can get through this!


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## hairpin (Aug 28, 2005)

Woo! Babe is feeding again from both breasts! Thanks for all the advice and help. Breastfeeding can really be overwhelming to a new mom.

And SuperMandy, sounds like we had very similar time of it. I only used formula to feed him as he lost 11% birthweight and was slightly jaundiced (so luckily I only had 2-3 feedings of formula total). Every time I fed him I tried to pump. But nothing was coming out, cause all I had was blood - no colostrum left and no milk yet.

Anyways this morning I woke up leaking. Yay! And I had a visit from an outpatient consultant from the hospital. We tried pumping and hand express to loosen up the nipples more. Not enough... And then tried the medela nipple shields which worked great. I know not to get stuck on these and will try pumping to get my nipple more workable for baby in the future. I do want to eventually be able to do nursing without any help. But anyways I am so happy to be heading to a less painful state and to be making my baby healthier.

Some other things the consultant recommended that you also recommend:
the warm compress/shower prior to nursing
cold pack after nursing as needed
circular massage to relieve harder spots to move milk to baby while nursing (this also works great to keep baby's jaw moving and motivated if he stops or slows down)

Anyways thanks again for the advice. I'm so glad things are working again! Really glad!


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## Girl In The Fire (Apr 6, 2005)

Good to hear things are going much better. Those first few days can be tough!


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## Peppamint (Oct 19, 2002)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *hairpin*
And then tried the medela nipple shields which worked great. I know not to get stuck on these and will try pumping to get my nipple more workable for baby in the future. I do want to eventually be able to do nursing without any help. But anyways I am so happy to be heading to a less painful state and to be making my baby healthier.









Glad to hear nursing is better.







I wasn't crazy about using the nipple shield (I used the same ones) but I figured it was better than pumping/bottle-feeding and we only used them for maybe 2 weeks or so, I can't really remember for sure!

Enjoy your babymoon!


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