Advice with first milk/ engorgement

[HappyHolidays22]

Hi! I gave birth to DD3 on Friday just gone (so 3 days ago). I’m trying to BF as I have with my other DC but I’m struggling to remember this exact phase previously!

my breasts started to get a bit ‘fuller’ on Sunday night so I guessed my milk must be ‘coming in’. I do recall with both my other kids that that means I was likely going to have sore breasts for a day or so …. But this is on another level.

my boobs are sore yes… but they are like solid watermelons; massive, really swollen and nothing is helping to alleviate the swelling. I’ve used compresses, taken a hot shower, tried to pump, not pump, encourage more feeding to drain the breast…. This last point was done on the advice of a midwife today who came round.

she said it was swollen because my latch hadn’t been right so baby mustn’t have been draining the breast. Sure, my latch wasn’t perfect - it’s taking some trial and error to find the right way… but now im focussing on encouraging baby to drain each breast by feeding longer and if anything, it’s making my breasts more swollen, not softer as she said it would.

can anyone offer any advice? I’m now starting to think that this just needs to run its course so I should just persevere with feeding DD3 on demand and getting the latch right. I don’t think I have mastitis (yet) no localised pain, heat or tenderness… just massive and swollen and very tender making it difficult to relax with feeding or improve the latch!

I would hand express in a very warm shower and then immediately feed your baby as much as possible from both sides. Expressing in the shower first should make it easier for her to latch. Then rinse and repeat. I would not use a pump at this stage. This is what I did with my babies and it took a few days to settle, but it worked.

Congratulations on your lovely baby. 🥰

To add, you definitely need to feed on demand and as much as possible.

Advice would be hand express or use manual pump to get edge off. Just a few pumps and put baby on close- tummy to tummy. Once baby latches on, feed on demand and min 8 feeds per day. Don't over pump and don't use electric pump. For the engorgement, use cooled down cabbage leaves. Cold helped me better than hot and it sorted itself out in a day.

Thanks all.

I’ve been feeding on demand nearly through the night (struggling to get her down) and I notice my breasts don’t ever go soft, is that normal for this stage? I know when the milk is established they should go soft once fully drained

@ControlShiftDelete i switched gears and grabbed bags of ice rather than the hot water bottle and I used a (hand) pump for only a few minutes… and suddenly my right side has eased up and softened - not completely but now DD can latch properly without causing me any pain. Here’s hoping that this side drains and I can start to work on the other side.

@Aquamarine1029 thank you for the congrats and for the suggestions. The affirmation that I am doing the right things by feeding as much as possible has given me confidence.

your help and words in the deepest hours of the night have been appreciated both :)

@HappyHolidays22 hope today will be better for you. I've recently experienced this and manual pump just a few drops and latching baby on demand really helped. I was advised to use ibuprofen for inflammatory and pain and used cabbage leaves from the fridge and then the next day both breasts calmed down. I remember last week pacing up and down the house soothing a screaming baby that wanted to cluster feed but with huge watermelons that she couldn't latch on properly, It was hell. Sleeping was impossible with an unsettled baby anyway but with the spare 2 hours where baby conked out in the end, I was in agony and couldn't sleep because of the two concretes on my breast.

I think if they aren't getting softer while she's latched on then she probably isn't latching correctly. Sometimes they will struggle to latch if the boob is full and engorged. Marmet technique hand expression is a useful thing to google.

Try not to get hung up on whether they are "full" or "empty" but if you are consistently engorged without ability to drain at all this will likely lead to mastitis for you and also might mean your baby isn't managing to get much milk, so I would want to see a midwife or feeding specialist ASAP to have a feed observed.

Thank you - I have actually just called the midwife, she told me to go to the GP to get checked as she thinks it already is mastitis and to be honest, that makes sense. Hopefully I get seen today and can get something in place either way - either help latching/feeding or some antibiotics.

Antibiotics given for a case of mastitis in both sides! Goodness me. Hopefully I have caught it early enough for the antibiotics to work quickly and I should feel the effects by tomorrow. I did wonder how I couldn’t remember this much engorgement pain with my first two! I guess i didn’t realise you could get mastitis so early on xx

thanks everyone