Engorgement advice please

[catwoman75]

Dd is 5 days old now and as engorgement has kicked in big style. Her feeding is still a little eratic and she can have a 25 min good feed evry two hours and then go to a 10 min half hearted suck every 3-4 hours. So my questions are:

1. Any suggestions on whether I should be offering both breasts at each feed or alternate them.

1. Pain realief suggestions. Am taking painkillers already.

1. Haven't bought a pump yet (in case I give up bf)so how much should I hand express before a feed. I don't want to increase supply any more.

1. Should I wear a bra all of the time or let them 'breathe' a bit

Help, please

1. That's a question for someone with more knowledge then me.

1. Warm shower

3.You don't need to express much - I remember I expressed just a few drops to get the milk flowing

1. Let them breathe as much as possible, and no bra at night.

Congratulations on the birth of your baby and the engorgement should go quite quickly - I think it lasted just a day with me.

Cabbage leaves. Put the cabbage in the fridge to cool, then peel off the leaf and put it around your breast,inside your bra. Works wonders.
As for which side to offer, I always started with the most full and when that felt better, switched to the other side. Let your baby help you out here.
Do you need to express?
I wore a bra all day and left it off at night. Felt better that way.

i had to wear a bra at night , i Couldnt manage otherwise with my jordan sized breasts.

If you used cabbage they must be savoy cabbage leaves, normal ones wont do the trick.

Warm flannel and massage will also help engorgement. I could never do the massage myself but tbh my dh was always happy to help

I would do every other breast each time

I would buy an inexpensive hand pump - it will be a lot easier

only let enough off to make you comfortable

I always found it more comfortable with a bra on, probably because of the extra support.

a bath/shower does help too

Savoy Cabbage leaves are amazing. Send someone to the supermarket NOW! Renew when they get warm and limp.

I used normal white cabbage which were excellent but I have heard lots of people recommend the Savoy so must be something in that.

i have a boots battery operated breast pump if you want it ffp

Thankyou soooooo much for all of the advice. Will get cabbage tomorrow (don't think anywhere will sell at 7 on a sunday night, have taken bra off which feels so good. They seem huge to me but as I was starting from such a low point (32B)they are probably not as big as most. Will try hand expressing a bit tonight and may go out and buy an inexpensive pump tomorrow.

Fingers crossed it wont last very long

as i said you are welcome to my breast pump if you want it

Cold savoy cabbage leaves, its something to do with the enzeyems in them.
Cold peas in small freezer bags- spread the bag out thinly so that they are all around your breasts.- maybe you could do this till you get your savoy tommorrow!
Wamr flannel on breasts before feeding to help stimulate flow.
Just expressing enough for comfort & to help baby latch on, will vary from person to person.
Do you feel baby is latched on well? feeling softer in breasts after feeding? good sucking from babe will help you out. Engorgement is misrable but it should pass really quickly.

Express a bit in a hot shower before you feed, and if you can feel lumpy bits (blocked ducts) massage them towards the nipple while feeding.

It will pass really soon, I think days 4-6 were worst for me. Once I had got them down to a size where my nipples weren't stretched flat with tension, and poor DS had something to get a hold of, we were cooking with gas

Thankyou that would be great Mrsleroy - I'm not sre about mumsnet procedure on how to go about getting it though.

People are very lovely on here - it makes me feel quite emotional (probs also due to milk coming in - I have been a little bit tearful this weekend!!!)

you can either CAT me or leave your email addy and we can work it out that way

Will try to CAT you - haven't done this before mind so might take a while.

According to my notes that the mw wrote I had engorgement+++ with ds2. I could seriously have given Jordan a run for her money!!!Ds hadn't a hope of being able to latch on . If there had been 24hr supermarkets then ds would probably have been ff. But lovely, lovely mw came out in the worst snow we'd had that winter at 11.00pm and expressed about 3-4oz off each breast for me using a hand pump and alternate hot and cold flannels. This meant ds could at least latch on and feed. Didn't have any probs with stimulating too much milk ..but ds was a greedy little man!!!I used to start with which ever breast felt fuller.... usually alternate with each feed.
As I said I had the worst engorgement mid wife had seen...I'm sure my boobs decided to produce enough milk for the whole street...But it passed and I continued to feed ds for many months. Good luck and stick with it

Thanks - they feel sooooo much better this morning. She fed about every 90 mins until about 1 a.m and I think that really did the trick. They are still a bit tender but fingers crossed the worst has passed.