Hold a cold compress against your breasts (a bag of frozen vegetables works well, too) or put a cold pack in your bra. Use cabbage leaves. This cruciferous veggie might sound like an odd remedy, but in some studies, women reported that chilled cabbage leaves relieved the pain and hardness of engorged breasts.
It usually gets better after several days. Over time, your body will stop making milk if you don't breastfeed or pump. This can take up to several weeks. You can take steps at home to decrease your discomfort and help your breasts stop making milk.
Hand Express While Pumping
A good pump can do a lot of the work for you, but sometimes they still need our assistance. Hand expressing is a superb way of manually forcing breast milk out of sticky and stubborn milk ducts. It is a good idea to always massage while pumping and finish with hand expressing.
Once the milk flow slows to drops, stop the pump and further massage your breasts, then finish the session by using your hands to express milk into the container or using the electric pump with massage to fully empty the breasts.
However, it's not possible to truly empty your breasts because they are always making milk. Kellymom has an analogy that just like it's impossible to fully empty a running sink, it's impossible to completely empty a breast, because more will milk keep coming into it.
Breastfeed often, every 1-2 hours, to avoid severe breast engorgement. Draining the breasts regularly is the best prevention. Poor drainage and unresolved pressure within the breast can damage milk producing cells and reduce your ability to make milk for your baby.
Gently massage your breasts with your hands and fingertips to stimulate your milk ejection reflex (MER or 'let-down') – this is the key to effective expressing. Bending forward with your breasts suspended means gravity can help milk flow.
You can also try applying moist heat to the affected area - such as by taking a warm bath or soaking the milk bleb with a warm compress to help soften it. Hand expression using your fingers near the nipple, grasping the tip of the plug, and then gently "working" it out can also sometimes help remove the milk bleb.
If you're not breastfeeding, breast engorgement may likely go away by itself in 7 to 10 days as milk production ceases. In the meantime, you can apply ice packs for the swelling or take pain medication to help with the symptoms.
Your breasts will be engorged for several days if you don't or can't breastfeed after your baby is born. This will gradually go away if your breasts are not stimulated to make milk. At present, there is no approved medicine to "dry up" your milk supply and prevent engorgement.
Some people may stop producing over just a few days. For others, it may take several weeks for their milk to dry up completely. It's also possible to experience let-down sensations or leaking for months after suppressing lactation.
If you do and don't do anything, the engorgement will likely last for 7 to 10 days. But if you take steps to treat the engorgement, usually it will be gone within maybe 24 to 48 hours, at least the worst part of it. So what does treating engorgement mean? It's a couple of very simple steps.
It's not the plugged milk duct that you can squeeze, but, in fact, the nipple. If you notice that there is dried milk on your nipple or the nipple pore is clogged, you can soak the affected nipple in warm water, and then try to express milk by hand to loosen and expel the milk that's causing the blockage.
Is it safe to 'pop' a clogged milk duct or milk blister with a needle? To put it simply: No. Popping a milk blister can lead to infection, and the risk is much higher if you do it yourself.
In some cases, clogs can cause a small white dot at the opening of the duct on your nipple. You might also notice that your milk looks thicker, grainy or stringy.
Hormones signal the mammary glands in your body to start producing milk to feed the baby. But it's also possible for women who have never been pregnant — and even men — to lactate. This is called galactorrhea, and it can happen for a variety of reasons.
Move your fingers in small circles over your breast tissue. Apply light, medium, and hard pressure as you walk your fingers to cover all areas. Move your fingers to the area under your armpit, and continue with small circles as you walk your fingers along. Repeat the massage on the other breast.
Engorgement is uncomfortable, and it can lead to other issues like plugged ducts or a breast infection. It also can slow or lower your milk supply, because your body is not getting the message to make more milk.
Between feedings you can use cold compresses, bags of frozen veggies, ice packs etc. Some women swear by gel “soothies” that are cooled in the fridge. Apply moist heat BEFORE you breastfeed (warm shower, warm towel, warm compress). This will help your milk let down.
If you're feeling engorged once breastfeeding has been established, “lots of breastfeeding and resting in bed usually resolves engorgement within 24 hours,” Heintzeler says. Trying a few different relief options—with feeding baby being the first line of defense—can help your body feel better.
Change your pump accessories regularly.
Even a good quality breast pump needs a good maintenance. If you pump frequently and has not changed your pump parts for a while, it may affect the pump's performance (particularly the suction) and makes it empty your breast slower than it should.
Making milk creates denser tissue in your breasts. After breastfeeding, both the fatty tissue and connective tissue in your breasts may shift. Your breasts may or may not return to their pre-breastfeeding size or shape. Some women's breasts stay large, and others shrink.
If you are experiencing breast pain during breastfeeding and you don't think it is engorgement, it might be a plugged duct. This can cause your breast to be tender and you may feel a sore lump in the breast. Plugged ducts are common, but they do not cause fever. If you have a fever, it might be mastitis.