for women only

You are about to get another saga story, this time a health saga. The male species and other non-mums may find this under the TMI (too much information) category. Far from offended, I'll be glad if you don't read it. I won't say that it is good therapy for me to get this out, because like the venue saga - it actually just puts me in a foul mood :)

I remember well our birth educator Natalie getting us to say out loud and loudly: "lactation consultant!" to drum it into our heads that these people exist to help with breastfeeding problems. Now at the time, the message I got was that if you were getting sore or your baby was having trouble feeding then you needed expert help quick smart before your baby starved or you got mastitis, lost your milk etc.

Now Eden was and is a fine feeder - you only need to look at him to see that. Eight weeks into breastfeeding I got a bit sore and I thought I better visit one of these places. I'm not very good when the phone number isn't under my nose and they're only open two days a week and I don't know which two and its all the way to somewhere in Johnsonville and..... plus I thought I was getting better! By the time I was getting the chills it was dawning on me that I might have mastitis - caused by who knows what as Eden was feeding well. I put it down to getting a bit slack with my positioning (you're supposed to vary feeding positions to ensure that all areas get properly drained).

Forty Eight hours later I am in Palmerston North and it is getting worse. A red rash is developing on the sight. So I visit some random doctor there, add Augmentin to the Fluclox and he advises me to stop feeding on that side and to buy an expresser pump. What if I was someone who couldn't afford to just "pop into the pharmacy and buy one"? I thought. I felt sure his advice was not what I had heard previously (my own doc agreed) so carried on feeding and did not buy a pump - even though I have been meaning to forever. When I got home I had to visit doc again and get more meds. So big bucks forked out 3 times for doctor and antibiotics and cremes until my enormous lump/infection went away.

Christmas eve (2 days after finishing meds) saw me back at the doctors in Te Awamutu with a lump under my armpit this time, so a lancing and more antibiotics, oh and we'll fork out for some oral thrush creme just in case the soreness I'm again feeling is that.

Tuesday last week another huge lump appeared in the same breast as before but in a different part. I figure I have been overcompensating draining on that side so I do a "mummy feat" as Megan puts it and feed Eden upside down. (It will hurt your brain to visualise this and where the lump was I was trying to drain - I was lying on the bed at the time if that helps). After three feeds in this position it is back to normal, phew.

Unfortunately it comes back with a vengeance on Thursday and this time I can't get rid of it. Even heavy duty "massaging" until it feels bruised does nothing. So down to the doc's and one month after being off antibiotics, I am on them again. Doc suggests a blood test for iron deficiency. On my way home, I stop at the library (why did it take me so long to get around to joining???!!!) and get out every book they have on breastfeeding (3).The lump quickly disappears the next day and then reappears a couple of days later. From my reading over the weekend I worry that Eden's latch is wrong and that is why I have had problems. I try to get him to open wider and wonder if this is having any effect. I also make up my mind to actually visit a lactation consultant.

I get an appointment for Thursday (yesterday) and of course am left booting myself in the bum that I did not do this in the first instance. Of course it is also FREE at the plunket too. The white spots that I had shown all 3 doctors I had seen and they didn't seem to know what they were were instantly identified as a major part of my problems by this angelic women who is resigning because she is sick of the politics of defending her position. EEEk.

As soon as I showed her the size of the lumps I had had, she said - "Oh, the whole lobe is blocked" Lobe? A bit like a wedge of an orange except much bigger and there are only 3 or four of them in each breast. The white spots were acting as little plugs and creating a plug right at the point of exit so the milk was totally backed up. Not a single blocked milk duct which is the common cause of mastitis. I had wondered as other people and books had described lumps as around pea sized... And as for latching - well a 4 month old is too old to change now anyway...

I was going to quote from the "breastfeeding answer book" about this condition known as 'white spots' but as I read it again it is totally inconclusive. It is clear that the spots cause a lobe to block up but there are no conclusive ideas as to what causes the spots or how to get rid of them. They may have got there due to damaged tissue or thickened milk getting stuck. They might cause mastitis or they might be caused by mastitis - eeek. A blocked lobe is not an infection in itself - just like a blocked milk duct but no one seems to be able to say how you clear the blockage to prevent infection. In my experience, they take anything from a couple of hours to a couple of weeks to drain - with or without drugs.

They say the white spots can clear up by themselves - here's hoping. Sometimes the white 'blebs' comes away a bit in the shower and that's OK, I can encourage that and try to prevent infection. Others suggest eliminating saturated fats from the diet and taking a lecithin supplement - no scientific basis for this. We concluded that I am stuck with them for now and have to just make sure I keep putting cremes on in the hope that they will keep the area moist and therefore less likely to block up.

So, I don't know if I actually had mastitis or not. My hunch is that I only had the beginnings of it as I didn't get nearly as sick as some people. Antibiotics also have anti-inflams in them so that might have helped. I've gone from telling myself off for not rushing down to the doctor to telling myself off for rushing down to the doctor. I have a feeling there would be no telling off if the doc was free like the good old London days. So what will I do next time I get a huge hard 'lobe' blockage? - I have no idea.

I found out yesterday that there are only 4 lactation consultants in the whole of Wellington. "It's a women's problem and therefore it's invisible" my angel said. "they think it's all supposed to happen naturally - like birth - hmmf" (See Megan's blog re: maternity care). Hmmf indeed. You'd think they'd be quite a number of Mums in the capital city and we have 4 people for those who need more attention than their midwife can give - and in Wellington that's not much anyway as they are a dying breed and GPs have little insentive to get involved.

We in the West demand to have the facilties to be well. It is good to want for better. I was reflecting last night after a visit from our cool missionary mates Leath and Rosie that we often forget that even the small percentage of what we have is a luxury compared to most peoples of the world.