What should I do if I have a lump or pain in my breast?

If there are lumps and swelling in the breast, some breast massage methods can help relieve it. In fact, this problem is faced by many breastfeeding women. Sometimes it may be caused by milk accumulation and milk knots, which can be solved by massage or hot compress.

1: Use the pads of four fingers other than the thumb to gently push in circles along the outer edge of the breast. You can use the fingers of both hands to push from the outside to the inside, gradually pushing to the areola area. If there is already a lump, there will be pain. This is the pain caused by the swollen milk overwhelming the nerves around the mammary gland. Do not avoid it, but be sure to rub it, and do not use brute force.

2: Still use four fingers to form a comb-like shape, combing from the outer base of the breast towards the nipple. All areas of the breast should be combed, and the milk knot area especially needs to be combed repeatedly. The key to this technique is to make sure the direction is correct. Do not comb horizontally or crookedly, and do not press down. As a reminder, never use a wooden comb or other hard comb instead of your fingers, as that can easily damage the breast glands. Our soft hands are the best tools.

3: Hold the entire breast with your hands, just like when breastfeeding, and then gently shake it up and down and left and right. Don't underestimate this step, because usually whether you use a breast pump or your baby, what is sucked out is the areola and the milk near the areola, while the milk at the root of the outer edge of the breast often cannot be sucked out, so milk knots are easily accumulated on the outer edge of the breast. The first two steps are to push the milk at the outer edge of the breast to the areola, and the third step is to allow the milk to flow better throughout the mammary glands.

These three steps can be repeated, as they are all ways to promote milk circulation. Massaging like this before each breastfeeding can effectively prevent milk lumps. If there is too much milk and you feel that it has started to accumulate somewhere, that is, when there is a tendency for milk knots to form, you should start massaging immediately to drain the excess milk. This can also effectively prevent milk knots. Never leave them unattended. Milk knots must be prevented in normal times and dealt with in a timely manner in the early stages. If massage doesn't help, you can drink some Ju Nai Tong, which is a milk-promoting soup. I used it before and it worked pretty well.