i also have heard that the same breast can get it as a re-occuring thing. i have had it once

Stories like this make me glad I wasn’t able to breastfeed for long. I’m terrified of being forced to try breastfeeding again for the next baby. I hear lots of horror stories about pains and sore boobs and mastitis etc.

I didn’t but my sister and friend did.

This sounds so painful. Just thankful I never suffered from this. Thank you for sharing as this will help a lot of Mums.

Aw bless, sounds very painful ! Breastfeeding isn’t always unicorns & rainbows indeed.

I never got mastitis, but I definitely did suffer from cracked and just plain sore nipples with my first because I didn’t know and hadn’t really been shown properly how to attach my baby. It sucked and it hurt a lot. I never realised that breast feeding would be so hard or that it didn’t all just come naturally. My second was absolutely fine because I knew what to do, but with your first it really can be a struggle and I think that is the big cause of a lot of mothers just giving up.

There is so much awareness about mastitis and the treatment. It is painful, but there is relief.

I know one Mum who suffered what they thought was flu (she had a deifnite respiritory infection with breathing problems at the same time) who literally could not get out of bed unassisted. The Dr. suggested supplementary feeding if she didn’t recover from the infection if she had to resort to antibiotics. She kept breastfeeding – her baby was a big feeder – sometimes drank all the milk from one breast and some from the other one. She recorded feeds to ensure both breasts we drained in turns. A few days later she also developed Mastitis. Because of chest infection the Dr. had no option to put her on antibiotics, the baby be bottle fed while the ducts were drained and she expressed for a few days until after she finished antibiotics and her body no longer retained any.

I can only imagine! After a few days, I was unable to breastfeed at all, so that was most challenging in its own way.

Ouch! What a brave woman to share it. And what a superstar to stick to it!

Luckily I never did but a neighbour had the misfortune to succumb to it. She actually used the old remedy of a cold cabbage leaf on the breast as one cure.