Why You Should Not Get A Massage Lady To Clear Your Blocked Ducts

I realised I had blocked ducts on Friday morning when I woke up, even though I latched a few times in the night. They were painful. by 9am I was in so much pain, I took panadol to soothe it. Fever kicked in too. I called all the recommended Massage Ladies from my mummies groups and managed to get a particular Mdm Y*** to come down to help me. She was a very nice lady. And I think she did manage to clear some.

My breasts were still really painful the next day. Mdm Y*** even messaged to see if I was better. Very good service follow-up! 🙂 I then started taking the anti-inflammatory pills from the GP. And continued with my panadol. By Monday (just 2 days of taking the pills) most of the pain was gone and I had no more fever. But I could still feel lumps.

On Tuesday, a particular Mdm I** came to clear for me. She stayed for less than 1 hour and I think my lumps were maybe slightly better, but they were still there.

I was at my wits end. I want to continue breastfeeding. The blocked ducts were irritating me. I was in pain. Should I call another massage lady in? After speaking to some mummies, I decided to call an LC the very next day for help. I had no idea why getting an LC was not one of my options earlier.

I asked for an appointment with a Lactation Consultant at Mount Alvernia Parentcraft Centre, and got a slot with Sister Kang at 11am. I was hopeful. 🙂

Sister Kang is a very nice lady and she is very skillful too! She saw me for about 45 minutes. And through this 45 minutes, not only did she help me clear my ducts, I also managed to learn a lot from her about blocked ducts. And I hope to share all these with you, because in future if I get a blocked duct, I will go straight to an LC and not an ML, and I hope you do too!

1. Most massage ladies do not know how to clear the blocked ducts properly. They end up making it worse for some, and injure the breast tissue for some. Note that I have only ever called recommended massage ladies who are good at the breast to massage for me. Previously some have helped me clear before. But maybe those were easy to clear cases. This time, the 2 recommended ones have not been able to clear.
2. Sometimes lumps you feel might be dilated ducts or breast tissue. For eg. sometimes the breast is hard, but disappears when you pump, and it comes back again. Those are not blocked ducts. those are dilated ducts. Or, after you pump and sometimes you can feed tendon like things. those are not blocked ducts either. They are breast tissue! So yes, I had both of these and they were “diagnosed” by both the LCs that saw me that they were blocked ducts!!!
3. From the day you realise you have Mastitis, even if you do go and see a doctor to take antibiotics, it can escalate into abscess within 2 days if not cleared properly. You will need to get it massaged and cleared as soon as possible. Best is to see an LC to clear once you feel the first onslaught of pain.
4. The milk from blocked ducts can be quite salty, so some babies might not like it. And when they don’t like it, they refuse to latch. And the blocked duct gets worse. And maybe you think, why is my baby on a milk strike? This information is new to me. I had not known that breastmilk can be salty!
5. On Friday when I found out I was engorged, I pumped out some milk at 9am (Shown in the pic below) When left to settle in the fridge, there was a very obvious brownish or dark yellowish paste in the milk too. I was horrified. Was that pus? Did I have abscess?? I found out, the yellowish/brownish milk is just thick milk. They are not pus as pus is in the breast tissue and not in the milk ducts.

Moral of the story, is to recognise the pain and get an LC to attend to it as soon as possible. The only time it cannot be massaged is when there is abscess but then they can refer you to the breast specialist immediately. The LC will be able to access and differentiate which area is blocked, which is a dilated duct, which breast tissue. They will be able to access to see if it is a serious case where you have abscess already and need to be referred to the breast specialist to remove the pus from your breast tissue.

Damage done: $110.(It is $90 for those who gave birth at Mt A) or $160 for a house visit. I had spent more to give to the massage ladies and endured the pain which did not clear my breasts and added more distress to me. I think it is very worth it. And I gained valuable experience and knowledge too. In future if I do get blocked duct, or if any of my friends get a blocked duct, no more recommending massage ladies. I will only recommend lactation consultants from now on.

Breastmilk Storage Bags Comparison

There are a few very commonly used milk bags amongst breastfeeding mummies. In this post I will compare 3 brands: Pigeon, Lansinoh and Boots, the 3 brands I use most often and I will let you know which is my current favourite!

Boots milkbag is really cheap, at 150baht from Thailand. Economically it is the best milk bag around. The plastic is thick and soft. So far no leaks.

However, the downside is something that was highlighted to me by a veteran member in a particular breastfeeding facebook group in Singapore. The portion where you write the information on, it is directly on the part that contains milk. Most other milkbags have it at the top. See the picture below when compared to the Lansinoh milkbag. The gripe is that possibly the ink might seep through the plastic. I’m not so sure about this. I have continued to use the bag and my boy is now 4 years old already.

Lanisoh was my favourite milkbag to use. It is on the expensive side though, even when you manage to get them from local sales or from Amazon. However I love it because the plastic was thin and (superficial i know), the bag is pretty. This impression change though. Lansinoh recently “improvised” their milkbags. The most obvious change is the 3-way portion you have to peel off before you use the bag. I used 1 box (100 pieces) of it, but by the time I have reached about 80 pieces, more than 5 bags have leaked already. I am not sure of the reason it leaked. Was I too rough? I never had this problem before. I stopped using Lansinoh completely. 😦

And now for my current favourite brand. Pigeon milkbags! I chanced upon this when I was given a box to try it out by my friend. The quality of the plastic is similar to that of Lansinoh, which I like. Thin and soft. Not the crispy kind. The bags were packed just as nicely as Lansinoh ones too. And best of all, they do not leak!!! I’m so happy to have found my new trustworthy brand to accompany me for the rest of my breastfeeding journey. 🙂

Breastfeeding Challenge 2015

On 29st August 2015, in celebration of World Breastfeeding Month, Thomson Medical partnered Phillips Avent, Spring Maternity, Passion Card, NTUC Ufamily and HeyBaby SG in an attempt to break the Singapore Book of Records for the largest ever breastfeeding event in Singapore.

At 9am, mothers started to stream into the Suntec Convention Centre, Rooms 300-302 to take up the Breastfeeding Challenge.

At 10am, mummies have gathered to breastfeed together in the same hour. Daddies have been told to move aside as some mummies might not be comfortable. Jaime Teo, a fellow mummy, was the emcee of the day, and renowned lactation expert Mrs Wong Boh Boi, Senior ParentCraft Educator of Thomson Medical Centre, was also present to share insights on breastfeeding to encourage mothers to breastfeed.

I attended this Breastfeeding challenge with some friends whose babies are all about the same age as my LO. They were all about 6-7 months old. We have succeeded in breastfeeding what is the recommended timeframe by HPB! Here is some of us during the session itself. The lady from the SIngapore Book of Records who was in charge of counting the number of babies breastfeeding was strict. She would only count if baby was latching. (By the way, Stephanie, mummy in the middle, was using the nursing cover from Spring Maternity that was given to us as part of the goodie bag!)

Here is the entire group of my friends who went for this event together!

After about an hour or so, the results were out! We had been part of a record breaking event! We had been part of a record-breaking 154 mothers breastfeeding at the same time with the Singapore Book of Records, 3 babies more than the previous record! Our nation’s golden jubilee celebrations were made more meaningful as the event involved our Jubilee babies coming together to break a national record.

Just some fun facts, according to Health Promotion Board’s National Breastfeeding Survey 2011, most mothers in Singapore would initiate breastfeeding after birth. However, only 30 per cent would continue to do so exclusively for at least two months.

We have breastfed for more than 6 months. That is an achievement. Some mummies and babies who were present have breastfed for even longer, some coming to 2 years! It helps to have a group of mummy friends supporting each other through this parenting and breastfeeding journey. 🙂

To end off, here are our breastfed babies!