Fever, chills, cold sweat, body aches… If it’s not COVID-19, it could just be mastitis. The horrific “M” word that every nursing mother dreads. Usually you might have already noticed a clogged duct and slower milk flow, or a hot painful lump in either or both breasts — what they call “engorgement”, which is basically pain that builds up when the milk becomes trapped and is unable to fully drain. Mastitis is what happens next, when the engorged breast tissue becomes inflamed and infected by bacteria that sometimes enters through broken skin or cracked nipples. No, it’s not pretty.
If you’ve reached the point of fever, chills and full body aches, instant relief might require a course of antibiotics from the GP and/or an SOS home visit by the Jamu massage therapist who’ll come knead and press and quite forcibly squeeze the clogged milk right out of your throbbing chest. Trust me, that kind of “therapy” will trigger a too-soon flashback to recent delivery room trauma.
But for those who (thankfully) haven’t reached that stage yet, these options might work instead, and you can try a combination of two or more of these for better results.