How is it that breast acupuncture hurts during lactation?

Recently, many lactating mothers asked if there were any abnormalities such as breast stasis, surgery and medical history. However, after or between breastfeeding, the breast has a needle-like burning sensation, which lasts from a few seconds to several hours.

Moreover, this situation does not appear in the early postpartum period, but suddenly appears after giving birth to the baby for a period of time. Even the nipples are white, hard and stinging after their mothers accompany them to breast-feeding, which makes them collapse. Some mothers tried all kinds of methods and failed, so they only reluctantly chose to leave milk to get rid of the pain.

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What problem are you describing? (What is it? )

What performances are usually accompanied?

How to prevent such pain?

How to deal with such a situation?

What is this breast pain?

What you described is probably a vasospasm. If the blood vessels in a certain area of the body suddenly tighten (that is, narrow or contract), it will reduce the blood flow and oxygen in this area. When vasoconstriction occurs in the deep part of the chest, it will cause tingling or burning pain in the breast.

Vasospasmic pain of breast is sometimes called breast contraction syndrome (MCS), which is named after the symptoms of deep breast pain caused by vasoconstriction of breast tissue. The nipple may also have vasospasm.

In fact, this is much more common than generally believed. Nipple pain may be caused by any cause, and it may actually be the result of injury, but sometimes it may not happen at all.

What are the usual performances?

cardinal symptom

Once the baby spits out the nipple after breastfeeding, it will cause burning and stabbing pain in the nipple and/or breast.

Pain can also occur when you leave a warm environment or go out on a cold day.

You may or may not feel pain when breastfeeding.

Nipples may change color (white or purple) and change back and forth between colors (for example, white turns pink and back to white) for a few minutes or even an hour or two.

The pain may last for a few seconds or even hours.

May occur in one or both breasts.

May be accompanied by vasospasm in other parts of the body.

Try to avoid induced causes.

Breast vasospasm may be the secondary reaction of nipple trauma, so any cause of nipple pain may induce breast vasospasm.

Nervous and stressed

This is the most common cause of breast vasospasm.

There may be many reasons for being nervous. Postpartum and lactating mothers may encounter many difficulties. Shoulders and chests may become tense inadvertently with mental stress, which causes the pectoral muscles to press the blood vessels of the breasts and nipples, so that the breasts and nipples lack blood flow and oxygen, resulting in pain.

Even the muscle tension caused by mother's long-term sitting and nursing, or the painful nursing experience, will lead to pain. The pain may be short-lived or persistent, or it may be deep or shallow, itchy, stinging, sore or knife-like, burning or a combination of any of the above.

cold

For example, when we walk out of a warm house in cool weather, our fingers may turn white, and blood flowing to our fingertips will cause pain.

If this phenomenon occurs on the breast, when leaving the warm shower environment or going out in cold weather, the breast may also have vasospasm and pain.

When breastfeeding is over, once the baby takes out the nipple, vasospasm will occur after breastfeeding. Because the outside air is lower than the temperature in the baby's mouth, when the baby spits out the nipple, it will start to turn white (which may also be caused by dry nipple). Usually, when the nipple turns white, it will be accompanied by chills or burning sensation.

After whitening for a period of time, the nipple may actually turn back to normal color (because the blood begins to flow back to the nipple), and at the same time, the nipple has bursts of pain, which may even cause severe pain in the breast.

Babies have shallow breasts.

When the baby is nursing, gently holding the breast, biting the breast, pulling or chewing the nipple will all cause the mother's nipple pain. When a mother feels pain, it is easy to tighten her shoulders and clench her teeth, which may also cause vasospasm in her breast, thus triggering a painful cycle. Start over.

Among breast-feeding mothers, breast pain or nipple pain in most cases is caused by the baby's shallow breasts.

In addition, use vasoconstrictors, cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine, etc. It may also cause vasospasm in the breast.

What should I do if there is breast vasospasm?

If you find that you have breast vasospasm and have ruled out candida infection, then you need to thoroughly investigate the causes of your breast vasospasm and make timely adjustments. The following methods have been proved to be effective, you can try:

1. Adjust the feeding posture and the baby's chest holding posture to ensure that the baby holds the chest deeply.

For details, please refer to the article: Dr. malei will personally tell you a good feeding posture!

2. Avoid contact with cold air.

When breastfeeding, avoid dry ambient air and low ambient temperature. Avoid breast exposure to cold air when breastfeeding; After taking a shower, avoid coming out of the shower room directly. You can completely cover your breasts and keep them warm, so that cold air can't reach them directly.

3. Dry and hot compress the breast.

Breast dry hot compress can effectively prevent vasospasm and relieve pain. When the baby's nipple loosens and leaves the breast after breastfeeding, immediately apply dry and hot compress, such as hair dryer, radiator, hot compress pad, rice bag added in microwave oven, hot water bag, etc. Or immediately cover your nipples and breasts with hot hands.

4. Chest massage.

Massage the pectoral muscles below the clavicle and above the chest after feeding or when there is nipple or breast pain. Massage should be very powerful and firm, and each side should be performed for about 60 seconds. You can also massage under or between breasts or under your armpits, but this massage should be gentle.

5. Special stretching exercise.

If the breast hurts, blood can flow more easily by stretching the muscles around the breast all day. The specific way is to raise one arm to shoulder height or slightly lower, and then press back/back. Hold your breath and take two deep breaths. Extend each arm twice, once with palms forward and once with hands backward.

6. Avoid contact with substances that constrict blood vessels.

Such as nicotine, caffeine, diet pills, cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine or phenylephrine, beta blockers and other vasoconstrictors, because they will aggravate symptoms. Oral contraceptives containing estrogen are also associated with vasospasm.

7. Magnesium helps to relax muscles and blood vessels.

Magnesium supplements are especially useful if there is vasospasm pain in the breast. If there is no obvious improvement within 3 to 4 weeks, please stop adding magnesium. If magnesium relieves the pain, you can continue to take it until the pain is stable (or painless) for 2 weeks, and then stop taking it.

8. If the pain persists, you can take the medicine under the guidance of a doctor. Use vasodilators, such as nifedipine.

9. When the pain does not improve in a short time, you can use painkillers under the guidance of a doctor.

Finally, breastfeeding mothers should try to relax, find appropriate ways to relieve negative emotions and mental stress in time, and breastfeeding will be smoother!