Mastitis: prevention and treatment

Mastitis (a disease that is also called "breastfed") often develops in women during the lactation period. However, it happens that mastitis is affected by nulliparous women, and in rare cases - even by men. This ailment is characterized by an inflammatory process in the mammary gland. If you do not immediately take measures to treat, you can hang on to surgery.

In 90% of cases, mastitis is diagnosed in nursing mothers. Statistics indicate that the disease occurs in 16% of young mothers and 74% of the first-born. In order not to fall into this number, you need to know about the methods of preventing mastitis. Let's see in more detail what kind of illness it is, and what you need to do to avoid it.

Causes of mastitis

Lactational mastitis is more common. The etiology, treatment, prevention of this ailment should be known to every woman. The most common cause of inflammation of the breast is an infection. In 90% of cases, the causative agent is Staphylococcus aureus, also causes streptococcus mastitis, E. coli. The causative agent easily penetrates the mammary gland through cracks in the nipples, as well as through foci that are present in tonsillitis of chronic form or pyelonephritis. With a healthy immune system, the body can easily cope with minor infections. However, with a decrease in the immunity of forces to fight with pathogens there. Childbirth for the body is a strong stress, all forces are directed to recovery. No wonder that very often after birth women develop mastitis, when even the slightest penetration of the pathogen causes inflammation. Prevention and treatment of mastitis is very important to carry out in a timely manner so that there are no complications.

Infected from the outside infection spreads through the mammary gland, through the lymphatic ducts. There is a possibility of getting pathogens with lymph and blood from remote infectious foci, for example, those that are localized in the organs of the genitourinary system.

For the development of the disease in the mammary gland very often favorable conditions are created, in particular, this happens when the stagnation of milk - lactostasis. Stagnant milk in the thoracic ducts is an excellent breeding ground for bacteria, because it contains so many nutrients.

In what cases does lactostasis occur? If the child does not suck out all the milk from the breast, and Mom does not decant, it stagnates, as a result, within 3-4 days, a favorable environment for the development of pathogenic microflora ripens, and mastitis begins. The probability of disease in women with nipples of irregular shape is high, as well as for those who do not observe hygiene and ignore the prevention of mastitis.

The ailment we are considering often accompanies obesity, diabetes, infectious diseases, a difficult recovery period after childbirth.

Lactation mastitis

Lactation mastitis, which occurs in nursing mothers, has several stages, one of which can be transferred to another. To avoid this, you need to timely prevent and treat mastitis.

The first stage is serous . The body temperature in a woman rises sharply, the breast significantly increases and swells. When touching, pain occurs. If you do not start a timely treatment, the ailment will turn into an acute form. Then the temperature reaches 39 degrees, there is a strong chill, there are signs of intoxication (headache, malaise). The chest is heavy, the color of the covers becomes red, the woman is tormented by constant pain. Expressing milk brings a lot of discomfort, but the procedure does not bring relief.

If you do not stop the development of the disease, serous mastitis grows into an infiltrative one . At this stage the patient is feverish, the chest swells more, the pain does not stop, even if you do not touch your chest. The state of the body is very heavy. The woman suffers from insomnia, lack of appetite, headaches intensify, general weakness is even more pronounced. When analyzing blood, an increased level of leukocytes is found. Also pains in the armpits (in the lymph nodes) join. That's what awaits those who are not serious about the prevention of lactation mastitis. At infiltrative stage, it is necessary to stop feeding the baby, as pus can accumulate in the milk.

The third stage of mastitis is purulent . The temperature can reach 40-41 degrees. Sweating appears, there is no appetite. The chest swells and hurts even more. Expressing becomes very painful, milk in this case comes out in minimal portions with an admixture of pus.

Worse than this condition can only be abscessing mastitis. The abscess of the aureole and furunculosis begins, the purulent cavities are formed on the chest.

Also, mastitis can develop into a phlegmonous stage, when the tissues of the mammary gland literally melt, neighboring tissues are affected. At this stage, septic shock often occurs.

To avoid such manifestations, it is necessary to take the necessary measures in time. Diagnosis and prevention of mastitis play an important role in maintaining the health of women.

Non-lactational mastitis

This type of disease is quite rare - only in 5% of cases. The cause of non-lactative mastitis can be trauma, squeezing of the mammary glands, any hormonal disruptions that have occurred in the body. The disease, in turn, is divided into fibro-cystic, plasma-cell, acute non-lactational. Prevention of mastitis in these cases will differ from the measures taken during the lactation.

Plasma cell mastitis is rarely diagnosed. More often it can be observed in women who have given birth. Symptoms resemble breast cancer, but there are no suppurations.

Fibrous cell mastitis occurs in women between 30 and 60 years of age. The main cause of the disease - a malfunction in the endocrine system. Pain is felt in both mammary glands, with inflammation being rare.

Acute non-lactational mastitis can be caused by damage to the fatty tissue of the breast. Sometimes the ailment develops in women who have abruptly changed climatic conditions.

Urgent measures for the detection of mastitis

Often inflammatory processes in the breast are due to stagnation of milk, so the first action in the prevention and treatment of mastitis is to express to the last drop. When lactostasis should not stop breastfeeding, it helps the outflow from the mammary glands, as well as reduces the volume of stagnation. If the infection is absent, there is a resorption of stagnation after decapitation. A woman feels relief, the initial symptoms of mastitis disappear.

If there is an infection, the illness should be treated only under the supervision of a doctor, the usual prevention of mastitis will not be enough. Only the surgeon is able to distinguish mastitis from lactostasis and determine the purulent form. Most often, a woman is prescribed antibiotics, a course of physiotherapy, and breastfeeding must be interrupted. If a purulent form of mastitis is detected, physiotherapy procedures should be canceled. Surgery is urgently needed. The abscess is opened, cleaned and washed. In the future, it is treated as an open purulent wound. In order not to allow such troubles, it is much easier to find out what measures of mastitis prevention exist, and adhere to all the recommendations.

Medication

Mastitis is a fairly serious disease, but despite this, with timely intervention, treatment is very successful and fast. The prevention of mastitis will avoid the disease, but if you still notice the first signs of the disease, immediately contact the doctor - he will decide on the methods of treatment.

Diagnosis involves the sowing of milk to check for sterility and a general blood test. Treatment begins without waiting for the results of the tests (they will help in further activities). Until complete recovery from breastfeeding is better for a while to refuse, because the organism of the child can penetrate with milk infectious agents, as well as the components of the therapeutic drug.

The basis in the treatment of any mastitis is antibacterial therapy. The doctor must choose exactly the drug that has the most negative impact on the pathogen. The concentration of the active substance in the tissues must be high, then the treatment will be most effective. Drugs can be administered intravenously, intramuscularly, the use of tablets is acceptable. Depending on the stage and form of the disease, the course of treatment can last from 5 to 14 days. All this time the milk must be decanted every three hours. Help drugs that reduce lactation. The treatment of mastitis and the prevention of disease very quickly bring positive results. If the symptoms have disappeared before the full course, do not stop taking the medication, otherwise a relapse may occur. In the case where the therapy did not bring relief, and mastitis goes into a more complicated stage, surgery may be required.

Prevention of postpartum mastitis

Avoiding insidious mastitis is not such a difficult task. First of all, every woman during pregnancy and breast-feeding should follow elementary rules of hygiene. Also, preventive measures include:

• Regular pumping with lactation (it is important not to allow milk to stagnate in the ducts);
• Immediate treatment of any injuries that appeared on the chest, special attention is paid to the nipples;
• An urgent appeal to the doctor for any suspicion of mastitis;
• Full sleep and a balanced diet;
• Avoidance of stressful situations, unrest, which adversely affect the protective reactions of the body, immunity.

Prevention of mastitis in the postpartum period is the basis of the health of the nursing mother.

With the first symptoms, people's medicine can help alleviate the condition, but do not delay with a visit to the doctor. Depending on the stage of the disease, the fight against mastitis will take no more than 1-2 weeks.

Hygiene

The main measures for the prevention of postpartum lactation mastitis are mainly to prevent the formation of various nipple cracks, timely treatment of microtrauma. It is very important to decant milk to the end in time and observe the rules of personal hygiene. Daily it is necessary to wash your breasts properly, for this you need to use warm water with soap. Areola and nipples are recommended to wipe with a solution of soda (1 tsp for a glass of boiled water).

To prevent the ingestion of microorganisms into the body, the first drops of milk must be expressed.

Also, the prevention of postpartum mastitis involves the use of different protective agents. Necessarily after each feeding it is necessary to lubricate their nipples - this will help prevent the development of wounds and cracks. Before feeding with a child's soap and water, the protective agent must be carefully removed. You can use folk remedies that help to quickly heal cracks in the nipples.

Proper feeding and pumping

In the prevention of mastitis, a great emphasis is placed on the proper process of breastfeeding. To the process of feeding lasted for as long as the child needs, without causing unpleasant sensations, change the position of the crumbs. It must be ensured that the pressure on the areola and nipple is distributed evenly, that all areas are involved. Apply the baby correctly to the breast. In the event that, after feeding, the child does not release the breast, presses it, it is possible to squeeze his nose slightly - he will push the nipple himself.

Then, following the requirements of prevention of mastitis after childbirth, it is necessary to express the remains of milk to the last drop. If the glands are hard, it is recommended to use a breast pump.

How to correctly drain milk by hand

You should wash your hands with baby soap. At the top of the areola, place the thumb, from the bottom - the ring finger and the index finger, retreating about 3 cm from the nipple. Confident, but neat movements chest should be squeezed fingers, slightly pressing inward, after that, fingers point forward, to the nipple. At this point, milk should appear. These movements repeat until complete relief in the mammary gland. Do not feel sorry for yourself, press firmly on the chest. For the first time, pain is possible. If the process is correct, the milk splashes with trickles, and not precipitated by drops. Watch for the technique of movements, fingers should not clamp the nipple - it traumatizes it. If the skin becomes very moist, wipe it with a dry diaper or a napkin. Every young mother in the maternity hospital the doctor should tell about the technique of expressing. If you still have any questions, do not hesitate to ask them your gynecologist.

Pumping with a breast pump

Modern breast pumps are excellent helpers for young mothers. With their help, you can easily and simply drain excess milk from your chest. The market is represented by many models, choosing the right one for you will not be a big deal. The preparation for the procedure will be the same as for manual straining. The device must be sterile. Each breast pump is always accompanied by instructions for use.

What will be the basic rules for the technique of expression? The funnel should always be placed so that the nipple is in the middle. The skin should be dry to ensure the creation of a vacuum with a close fit. Then the actions depend on the model of the device: you need to press the handle of the piston, compress the bulb or pump (in manual breast pumps) or turn on the button (in the electrical appliance). The operation of manual models requires constant mechanical work - rhythmic pressing of the pump, pens or pears. Electric appliances pump the milk themselves, but here it is necessary to control the process and adjust the device to suit itself. Milk flow should be active, even.

At the end of pumping, the trickle gradually turns into droplets. Breasts should be light and empty. The process of expressing itself should not cause discomfort. This is possible only in the first minutes when using a mechanical pear, pump. After the procedure, you should immediately sterilize the breast pump.

Leave the breast open for a while, let the remaining milk dry in the air. Linen change daily, use hygiene liners for nursing, which are inserted into the bra. If the chest feels tight, gently massage the chest, "accelerate" it.

Take care of your chest!

In order not to become a victim of postpartum mastitis, prevention must be carried out necessarily, and all rules must be observed scrupulously. Be sure to keep your chest warm. With mastitis and lactostasis, even a slight hypothermia contributes to the development of various complications. It is not recommended to over tighten or re-bandage the breasts. With obstructed blood circulation, stagnant phenomena only increase. Modern doctors say that it is not necessary to feed a child by the hour, it is better to do it on demand. So the risks of lactostasis and mastitis are significantly reduced. When feeding by the hour, milk stagnates in the ducts. Free feeding improves the quality of life for both mother and child. My mother is healthy, but the baby is always calm and full. Adhering to recommendations for the prevention of mastitis in women, you can avoid insidious disease and rejoice in motherhood and the ability to feed a healthy baby.

Folk recipes for the treatment of mastitis

If mastitis or lactostasis begins to manifest itself, folk remedies will help alleviate the symptoms of the disease. However, this does not relieve you of the trip to the doctor, grandmother's alone can not do without, it is necessary to destroy the pathogen.

What means and folk recipes for these pathologies used by our ancestors: We list the most popular ways:

• Facilitate the patient's condition with lactostasis and mast honey cakes. Prepare them from equal proportions of honey and flour. They help to dissolve seals.
• Reduces the heat, ease the condition of a fresh leaf of cabbage, burdock or mother-and-stepmother. The leaves must be pre-heated with boiling water. You can apply honey or sour cream. After that, fix the compress on the chest with a dense bandage, it is not recommended to use a film. The sore place should breathe.
• It is recommended to put a tea mushroom in a sore spot, and cover it with paper on top. The compress should be done before bedtime for a week.
• It helps mastitis with baked onions with honey, it is also applied as a compress. You can use the figs: before use, it is steamed in milk.
• To grate the chest, prepare a tincture from the Japanese Sophora: in the ratio of ½ pour the beans of the plant with vodka. You need to insist for three days in a dark place. Tincture strain, it is ready for use.
• Relieve the condition of the gruel from rice starch. Intensively stirring, dilute the starch in water to the consistency of sour cream. The product is applied to gauze and applied to the affected area for three hours. You can also use mush from potato starch and vegetable oil.
• Rub an apple on a grater, add a soft butter. Blend the mixture on the breast, cover with gauze.
• A regular gauze napkin, folded in several layers, soak the Kalanchoe juice and attach it to the diseased area.
• It helps ointment, prepared from dry celandine and melted butter. Mix a teaspoon of chopped grass with two tablespoons of butter.
• For the compress, you can use pumpkin flesh. She boils in milk. When the mixture thickens, make a compress from it, top with sugar and cover with a napkin.

"Grandmother's recipes" will help only to alleviate the condition, but problems will not be solved, we need to remember this. At the slightest suspicion on a mastitis it is necessary to address to the doctor and to begin medicamental treatment!