by Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC
The following describes the use of some treatments for breastfeeding mothers who are having various problems.
Cabbage leaves for engorgement
Severe engorgement about the third or fourth day after the baby is born can usually be prevented by getting the baby latched on well and drinking well from the very beginning. If you do become engorged, please understand that engorgement diminishes within 1 or 2 days even without any treatment. Continue to breastfeed the baby, making sure he gets on well and nurses well. However, if you should get engorged to the point of severe discomfort, cabbage leaves seem to help decrease the engorgement more rapidly than ice packs or other treatments. If you are unable to get the baby latched on, start cabbage leaves, start expressing your milk and give the expressed milk to the baby by spoon, cup, finger feeding or eyedropper and get help quickly.
Use green cabbage.
Crush the cabbage leaves with a rolling pin if the leaves do not accommodate to the shape of your breast.
Wrap the cabbage leaves around the breast and leave on for about 20 minutes. Twice daily is enough. It is usual to use the cabbage leaf treatment two or three times or less.
Stop using as soon as engorgement is beginning to diminish and you are becoming more comfortable.
You can use acetaminophen (Tylenol) with or without codeine for pain relief. As with almost all medications, there is no reason to stop breastfeeding when taking analgesics.
Ice packs also can be helpful.
If you are one of the women who gets a large lump in the armpit about 3 or 4 days after the baby’s birth, you can use cabbage leaves in that area as well.
Herbs for Increasing Milk Supply
It is quite possible that herbal remedies help increase milk supply. There are several drugs which obviously do increase milk supply, and of course it is reasonable to assume that some plants and herbs might contain similar pharmacologic agents. Almost every culture has some sort of herb or plant or potion to increase milk supply. Some may work as placebos, which is fine, some may have an active ingredient. Some will have active ingredients which will not increase the milk supply but have other effects. Note that even herbs can have side effects, even serious ones. Natural source drugs are still drugs, and there is no such thing as a 100% safe drug. Luckily, as with most drugs, the baby will get only a tiny percentage of the mother’s dose. The baby is thus extremely unlikely to have any side effects at all from the herbs. Two herbal treatments that seem to increase the milk supply are fenugreek and blessed thistle, in the following dosages:
fenugreek: 3 capsules 3 times a day
blessed thistle: 3 capsules 3 times a day,
or 20 drops of the tincture 3 times a day
The tincture container states that blessed thistle should not be taken by nursing mothers, presumably because of the tiny amount of alcohol the mother would get. Don’t worry about this. Teas also work, but to take enough to make a difference, you will be drinking tea all day and night.
Other herbal treatments which have been used to increase milk supply are: raspberry leaf, fennel, brewer’s yeast. The effectiveness of none of these treatments has been proved.
