And by “breasfeeding mishaps,” I mean, specifically, mastitis.
For those who don’t know, mastitis is a rather unpleasant infection that sometimes happens to breastfeeding mothers – the breast gets red and very sensitive to touch, and you need to take antibiotics to help the infection go away. This is a brief account of my own experiences with mastitis while living in Japan, originally published in an old blog a while back. Enjoy!
For those who don’t know what mastitis is, it is a condition where the breast becomes infected due to a blockage in an individual’s milk ducts. This usually occurs within the first month of breastfeeding a newborn, but it can happen at any age while one’s child is nursing.
For me, it happened when my daughter was around thirteen months old. I didn’t realize what was happening at first; though I had read about mastitis, I’d stopped worrying about it months before. I mean, surely it would never happen to *me*! I’d breastfed my daughter exclusively! Mastitis only happens to people who supplement with formula! Ahaha… ha.
You know what they say about pride going before a fall…
My breast started hurting that morning, but at the time I thought, “Oh, another plugged duct. No biggie.” Plugged ducts aren’t that uncommon for me (in and of itself a sign I was at risk of getting mastitis), but I figured as long as I pumped and encouraged my daughter to drink, there wouldn’t be a problem.
Part of my reluctance to admit I’d contracted any serious ailment was that my husband, daughter, and I were planning to go to Wakayama (about a four-hour trip by train) to visit my brother and his wife and kid. They were staying with the wife’s family, and this would be my last chance to see them before they returned to America. I had actually planned to visit them the week before, but since Anna and I had both gotten a cold, I didn’t want to risk getting my pregnant sister-in-law or her kid sick.
I’d already packed the suitcase and was baking some banana bread to give as a sort of greeting present. Except for chats over Skype, it had been years since I’d seen my brother, and just over one since I’d seen his wife and now 2-year-old son, who had both visited me shortly after my daughter was born. I was looking forward to seeing them.
It was while I was making the banana bread that I was suddenly struck with the chills. I’d never had chills before, and hope I never do again, because they are thoroughly unpleasant. I felt freezing cold but was unable to warm myself no matter how many layers I pulled on or blankets I tucked myself under. My teeth were chattering pretty much non-stop, even as I looked at the temperature in the room and knew it wasn’t that cold.
It was at this point I was thinking, “I should go to the hospital,” but a large part of me was still in denial. My decision to try sleeping it off I will attribute to a bad cold clouding my judgment, sleep deprivation, and a general inborn obtuseness. It didn’t help that my daughter was tired, cranky, and in desperate need of a nap. All in all, despite the cries of my common sense, snuggling down with my daughter seemed like an okay idea. (I’m just lucky it didn’t turn out to be something more serious.)
Half an hour later, I threw up. Several times. Again, unpleasant, and yet another symptom of mastitis. I did eventually get my rest, but as you might imagine, that didn’t make the breast pain go away.
My husband came home around three in the afternoon – earlier than usual so that he could help with any last-minute preparations for our trip. By then I had recovered from the chills, though I was still nauseous and in pain… and also, I’d missed the toilet during one of my vomiting escapades, so there was a bit of a mess. I was in bad shape, and despite my previous denials, I knew my husband was right when he said we had to cancel the trip.
That didn’t stop me from arguing about it, first.
Common sense won out, and I texted my brother and sister-in-law with the news. (I also received some photos of everyone as a consolation prize.)
Now typically, if you have maternity-related issues here in Japan, you go to a ladies’ clinic, which is where I went the next day. I got medicine to take for the next week, plus a breast massage.
The Japanese are big on breast massages for mothers, whether to stimulate milk supply or to unclog plugged ducts. While there’s no real evidence to suggest it does anything for milk supply that a little pumping wouldn’t do, it does help get rid of anything blocking your milk by, well, milking it out. (It’s less gross than it sounds. Or maybe more; I’ve grown inured to it, either way.) Since the root cause of mastitis is a blocked duct, getting a massage was a pretty obvious choice.
But let me tell you: no matter how good it is in helping with the healing process, it is excruciating. My breast was so red and inflamed, a simple tap had me wincing in pain. A full-on massage was torture.
Quick question: do they have breast massages in other countries? I’m pretty sure they don’t have them in America (but then, I’ve never gone to an OBGYN in America, so I guess I wouldn’t know for sure either way), but I wonder if any other country practices this.
What I do know is that mastitis is best treated as soon as the symptoms pop up so that it can be remedied as quickly as possible. Because I dragged my feet and waited until the next day, it took twice as long for the pain to go away, I ended up needing two more visits to the clinic and everything was generally more irritating and drawn-out than it had to be.
Lesson learned. I made a full recovery after two weeks, so there was no lasting harm done.
