Cabbage Leaf Compress
Remember when your grandma said that nursing women should put cabbage leaves or tea bags on their breasts? Bosom Buddies is a blend of healing herbs, cabbage leaves and black tea, just like grandma recommended, along with organic comfrey leaf, organic parsley and organic marshmallow root . Fill the enclosed muslin bags with this soothing breast poultice to help keep milk ducts open and to help prevent or heal sore, cracked nipples. Turns out grandma was right - These herbal poultices are a wonderful relief for breastfeeding mamas. Moisturize and nourish your breasts and tender nipples so they can nourish your angel baby - naturally. 35
This normal breast fullness can develop into engorgement if the baby isn’t nursing often enough or vigorously enough, or if you are separated from your baby and don’t remove the milk frequently and effectively. Your breasts may become extremely tender and painful. Because the breast is so full and swollen, the nipple and areola may flatten out, making the tissue difficult for the baby to grasp. 17
When your milk becomes more plentiful, your breasts may seem filled to bursting. This fullness is due to additional blood and fluid traveling to the breasts, preparing them for producing milk, as well as the increased volume of the milk itself. Some women only notice a little fullness, while others experience quite a bit more. Usually, the fullness subsides in 12-48 hours. It is especially important to continue to breastfeed your baby frequently since removing the milk from the breasts relieves the engorgement by allowing room for the excess fluids to flow out of the region. 20
It is theorized that this natural mixture of ingredients from “Mother Nature’s Kitchen” helps decrease tissue congestion by dilating (opening) local capillaries (small blood vessels) which improves the blood flow in and out of the area and allowing the body to reabsorb the trapped fluid in the breasts. In many cases, science is finding that recipes for cures from “Mother Nature’s Kitchen” can’t be duplicated in the laboratory. The use of cabbage leaves alone have not been shown to be effective in treating engorgement unless combined with other measures such as getting the baby to the breast and/or pumping. 6
Lactation consultants are reporting a peculiar type of swelling in the breasts in some women who have an epidural in labor that makes the areola so swollen that it cannot be compressed for adequate latch on by the baby. The only logical conclusion that can be drawn from this anecdotal evidence is: if the rest of the body visibly swells with extra fluid so do the breasts. 6
Make sure that your breasts are soft enough for your baby to latch on well. If your breasts are hard and too full of milk, let out (express) a small amount of milk with your hands or a pump. Then put your baby to the breast. 19
Allowing baby to finish the first breast before switching sides. This means to wait until baby falls asleep or comes off the breast on his own. There is no need to limit baby’s time on the breast. 20
Your baby should breast-feed at least 15 minutes or more on the first breast before changing to the second breast. You will know it is time to move to the other breast when your baby becomes less eager to suck. 19
Simple measures like cold and heat application can help relieve breast discomfort and improve milk flow. Cold therapy increasingly is being recognized for its value in reducing inflammation and pain. Traditional ice packs, cool compresses, or commercial cold packs-even bags of frozen vegetables!-can be applied to the engorged breasts for fifteen to twenty minutes at a time to reduce blood congestion and tissue swelling. This will diminish internal pressure in the breast and help milk move through the ducts to the nipple openings. 15
This can help just before you feed, especially if the nipple is very full, and your baby is having problems attaching to your breasts. Try to gently hand express some milk to soften the nipple. This will make it easier for your baby to latch on. If you are unsure how to hand express, ask your caregiver. Or you can read more about this in expressing and storing breast milk. Massaging the breast while you feed can also help to get the milk flowing. Concentrate your massage on any noticeable lumps. 37
For centuries, cabbage has been used in many countries as a folk remedy for a wide variety of ailments. All kinds of medicinal applications have been suggested for cabbage, including eating it raw or lightly cooked, drinking fresh cabbage juice, or applying a raw cabbage leaf poultice. In recent years, a number of lactation experts have suggested that wrapping engorged breasts in cabbage leaves brings rapid, effective relief of discomfort and facilitates milk flow. Many women attest to the benefits of this treatment, but scientific proof is still lacking to confirm whether such therapy truly is effective for breast engorgement. 15
Leaves can be chilled in the refrigerator for extra benefits. Cool compresses tend to relieve swelling more effectively warm compresses. Some mom’s find that crushed ice over the cabbage leaves also helps. Note: Some cultures strongly believe that placing anything cold or cool on the breast ruins the milk (and some believe that cold exposure of the chest ruins the milk forever). These are merely cultural beliefs and have no basis in scientific fact yet need to be respected. 6
If your breasts remain full, knotty, and tender after nursing, you may want to pump for 5-10 minutes to remove all the milk that comes out quickly and easily. Removing the milk will relieve the pressure and reduce the swelling, softening the areola and making it easier for the baby to latch on. Whether you manually express or use a pump, be very gentle, since engorged breasts bruise easily due to increased blood volume. 17
A technique called alternate breast massage has been shown to significantly reduce the incidence and severity of engorgement while simultaneously increasing milk intake, the fat content of the milk, and infant weight gain.27, 28, 29 Alternate massage involves massaging and compressing the breast when the baby pauses between sucking bursts. Massage alternates with the baby’s sucking and is continued throughout the feeding on both breasts. 21
Cabbage leaf compresses are often suggested by herbalists to reduce swelling in moderate to severe engorgement of the breast during breastfeeding months. Cabbage has both antibiotic and anti-irritant properties — it contains sinigrin (allylisothiocyanate) rapine, mustard oil, magnesium, oxylate and sulphur heterosides. It is theorized that this natural mixture of ingredients helps decrease tissue congestion by dilating (opening) local capillaries (small blood vessels) improving the blood flow in the area. 9
References
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