Cabbage Leaves – To Relief Engorgement
At about 9p.m. two nights ago, my right breast started to feel engorged. During Baby V’s first night-feed a short while later, he could not get the milk out. I suspected a blocked duct and tried pumping, but saw no improvement. Trying to feed Baby V several times through the night did not help either.
By 4a.m., I felt very uncomfortable and painful. A few hours later, I developed a 37.8 degree Celcius fever and felt chills all over even though I was wearing long sleeves and pants. It seemed like flu has set in, and I recognised these as symptoms of potential mastitis.
On my nurse’s advice, I placed cold cabbage leaves on the swollen area and rested in bed, feeding Baby V as frequently as possible. The cabbage leaves reduced the engorgement within half a day and I felt much better.
I also used a sterilised needed to burst a nipple bleb, which contains blocked milk.
Within a day, I recovered and continued to use cabbage leaves treatment for one more night. Fortunately, this problem was solved quickly. Otherwise, infection could have set in and I would have needed to seek medical help.
Pros (of cabbage leaves):
- Simple and effective method of relieving engorgement
- Low cost
Cons:
- Leaves a vegetable smell behind for a while
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I also experienced similar episodes a couple of times. It seemed to happen whenever I went out and missed one or two feeds. It is really a painful experience. The cabbage leaves help and the lactation taught me how to massage the breast properly. I also suspect some of my ducts are blocked but I found no bleb. It took about a week to resolve the lump.
Hi Virginia, thank you for sharing. I just had another bleb yesterday and piercing it with a clean pin helped. Luckily, no serious engorgement. Phew!
La Leche League has a prescription for cabbage leaves usage to relieve engorgement. I read about it in their book “The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding”. I think it was something like no longer than 8 hours a day… I’ve never had to use cabbage leaves so I can’t really remember…
Cabbage leaves need not be used once engorgement has subsided. Just came across this article here, which mentions “Repeat application of cabbage leaves 4-6 times, for a total application time of 8 hours. Use the cabbage leaves only until the engorgement subsides. Prolonged use of cabbage leaves on the breast can reduce milk supply.”