Hi Ladies,

I'd really appreciate some advice on this. My baby, April, is 11 days old and after an unsuccessful attempt at breastfeeding I have been exclusively expressing since day 4. My milk supply came in nicely, and I was able to express between 80-150mls per breast per session (every 4 hours or so).

A couple of days ago I noticed my breasts getting hot and heavy between feeds and though I possibly had thrush as I didn't have any reddening (and I thought that it was to do with the state of my nipples). I mentioned this to my MW and she said see the Doc ASAP. However the next morning, it was clear it wasn't thrush as I had a temperature, was sweating and shivering and my whole body ached. I was just about able to get to the doctors who sure enough diagnosed Mastitis and prescribed antibiotics and pain killers.

This evening, 36 hours on, I still feel rough but the shivers and sweats are gradually subsiding. I have also developed a huge red patch on my right breast which I presume is the infection site.

Now here are my queries.

- I was advised to express through the pain to relieve the blockages and keep the milk flowing. However, despite expressing for ages there is very little milk coming out of my right breast. Maybe only 20-50mls each time I pump. Is this normal? Surely there should be loads coming out as the size of it should suggest. I've been massaging from the armpit forward towards the nipples and also made the breast nice and warm, but nothing is really working. Do I just keep perservering?
- When the infection has been cleared, will my milk supply return to 'normal' or will I need to start from scratch to build it up again?
- How long does it take to recover from Mastitis? I feel so useless and OH is pretty much doing everything for April and around the house. I'm just lucky he's still on paternity leave. On top of that I'm missing being close to my little girl as I can barely lift her I feel so weak.

Basically any tips/advice/miracle remedies would be very much appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Aww I know how much mastitis hurts. The fevers are the worst part. Mastitis, combined with bleeding nipples almost, but not quite, put me off persevering with BF. Once I was on antibiotics though I was right as rain in a few days and feeding through it actually eased the pain for me. I didn't express then so I'm not sure about how it would affect that but my milk supply was the same as before after the mastitis had gone.

I feel for you, i had mastitis too and it was agony, i couldnt raise my arm or bend over. I found feeding Kieran and expressing helped (although it was agony, i persevered). after a course of antibitotics i felt much better and breast feeding more or less continued as normal. someone told me to fill a bowl with warm water and put my sore breast into it and massage my breast to encourage milk flow and release some trapped milk, but to be honest i didnt try it :/ you could try that though?
Hope u feel better soon hun xx

Poor you it's horrid. My antibiotics worked really fast and I was better ina few days and altho I was told to express and feed as much as possible on that side, my logic told me the more I fed / expressed on that side, the more milk my body would think baby needed, so the more it would produce and I thought that would make the blockage worse, so I carried on exactly as I had neen before getting it and just soothed it with hot flannels and it cleared up in a day or two