Help - in pain now having stopped bf

[MaggieW]

I've gradually dropped feeds (I've been expressing all) over past three weeks and am in agony now having dropped final feed on Wednesday morning. I expressed a little off yesterday am and evening to relieve pain but have big tender patches at sides now and am huge. Should I express more or will it pass. I'm worried continued expressing will prolong everything. Help please!

The tender patches you describe sound like blocked ducts, I think you'll have to keep expressing otherwise this is going to get worse and may turn into mastitis. The only way I could relieve the pain from blocked ducts was by vigorously massaging the affected area while feeding (agony, but it clears the blockage). From personal experience I don't think the blockages will clear up if you do stop expressing - although it's a bit of a vicious circle isn't it, the more you express, the more milk you make! Have you tried talking to your doctor - maybe there's something they can give you to help. Sorry I can't give more helpful advice.

There is some evidence that expressing overful breasts completely will help resolve the problem. To be honest, if I were you I would express to empty them as much as possible to get some comfort. Because your breasts have been so full, that in itself will inhibit firther lactation as there is a substance in the milk called feedback inhibitor of lactation (FIL). That is the body's way of turning off production. All women have different amounts of FIL. You want to avoid getting mastitis at this stage so I would express just now.

Thanks for your advice. I have spoken to a midwife who said to stop expressing as this won't help. Instead she said to put on my tightest bra and take nurofen. Sounds strange but it seems to be doing the trick. The hard tender patches seem to be softening up. Fingers crossed.

mears, could you just explain about the overfull boobies and expressing? i get horribly overfull quite often and am not quite sure what to do.

hi all im new to this "talking" stuff so please be patient, could someone reply so i know im on the right track thank you!

thinking back to when i stopped breastfeeding, i was told to go back on the contraception pill although the pain was there i just massaged the blocked ducts and eventually i dried up it didnt take more than 12 days!

thinking back to when i stopped breastfeeding i was told by the midwife to start back on the contraception pill, after massaging the painfull blocked ducts it didnt take more than 12 days!

This reply may be a bit late but when I stopped breastfeeding my mum swore that if I took one dose of Epsom salts that I'd dry up really quickly. As it turns out I dried up almost straight away anyway so I never tried it out. I'd love to know if it works though.

thanks for that most appreciated!

Epsom salts usually induced diarrhoea and it was thought the resultant dehydration stopped milk production. It is not a recommended way of scattering milk now. I remember when women were given huge doses of hormonal drugs (Estrovis) to stop milk production - caused blood clots that killed them! ( not where I worked I have to say)

mears - that sounds like a totally sensible explanation but my mum said you only take one small dose and it doesn't do anything noticeable but after a day or two, your milk just stops. Maybe it's one of those old wives tales that people swear by but doesn't actually seem to work properly!!