The birth of a baby is a major victory for the mother-to-be, but it is only the beginning of a long parenting journey, and the next step is to face the difficulties of parenting, which will require the mother to do her best. But don’t worry, with our escort, we are holding a sharp weapon, so let’s overcome the difficulties on the bumpy road of breastfeeding together for the sake of our children. The most important thing that we fear during the whole breastfeeding period is mastitis, and many mothers suffer from it, and even choose to wean themselves from it because they can’t stand the torture. How to prevent mastitis becomes an important weapon to overcome this first hurdle of breastfeeding. The main culprit of mastitis during breastfeeding: Staphylococcus aureus Don’t be fooled by the bacteria that look cute and colorful, they are usually attached to the skin of healthy humans, and with the presence of the largest natural barrier of the whole body, the “golden glucose-ball gentleman” is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, waiting for the right opportunity to move. Once the conditions are right, they immediately reveal their evil nature and invade the body to cause infection, but fortunately it is also a “paper tiger” and can be repelled with the most common penicillin and cephalosporin antibiotics. The causes of mastitis are: milk stagnation, nipple entrapment, nipple cracking, congenital ductal incompetence, etc., which prevent the milk from emptying sufficiently. Milk itself is a playground for bacteria to multiply, and fresh milk will have a shelf life because the small amount of bacteria in it will multiply in the milk. The same is true for human milk. The lax breasts during lactation, the sloughed up dilated milk ducts and sinuses of the milk ducts raise a breeding ground for bacteria, and the rich nutrients in the milk provide the right raw materials for it, so the golden glucosamine starts to build its invading army on a large scale. Postpartum Immunity Decline Mothers who have just given birth have undoubtedly experienced a physical battle. Those with good immunity still have a fighting chance against bacteria, and generally the inflammation is relatively mild and can even be absorbed on its own. And those with poor immunity often lose their armor in this battle, the bacterial forces prevail and the infection spreads throughout the body. The first month of postpartum breastfeeding due to the lack of experience of new mothers, nipples are often sucked by babies or nipples failed to adequately clean, 85% of breastfeeding abscesses occur in this period; 2, weaning period some mothers throughout the breastfeeding period did not occur mastitis, to the last back to the milk period “late” lost, this period The baby’s teeth will increase the probability of nipple loss, so you can’t ignore breast problems during the weaning period. We have the winning strategy: prevention, avoiding milk stagnation, regular breastfeeding habits, keeping nipples clean, preventing nipple damage and bacterial infection. Early inflammation: Most of the symptoms are swelling of the affected breast, poor milk elimination, redness and swelling of the breast, generalized fever, weakness and other discomforts. If the symptoms improve, no further treatment is needed, but remember that you still need to empty the milk at the same time. Abscess formation: A lump appears on the breast, the local skin breaks down and even pus flows, although the symptoms of general fever and weakness may not be obvious, but it is often more difficult to deal with. At this point, antibiotics alone are no longer able to fight against it and some external interventions are needed: fine needle aspiration or incision to drain the pus. Finally, I have to nag you about a few common misconceptions: when mastitis is in its acute stage, do not massage with hot compresses. It is very correct to use hot compresses and massage to make the ducts of the breast dilate for milk secretion while breastfeeding. If the breast is already red, swollen and painful, the hot compress and massage will only help to spread the inflammation to a wider and deeper area. I often see pregnant women’s breasts covered with a variety of vegetables and fruits, from cabbage leaves to potato slices to dough, each time I was amazed that I could not think of only see, encountered several cases of mastitis patients due to the delay in the best time for treatment and the spread of abscesses had to be incised to drain the pus, the incision could not heal for months, the shape of the breast was destroyed. The first thing you need to do is to find out early and deal with it, don’t believe in the folk remedies of the “experienced” or lactationist.