News

Mastitis - Article by Margarita Gurevich, published in The Love Destination

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Mastitis is a painful condition affecting women just after they have given birth. During the breastfeeding period sometimes the ducts carrying the milk can become blocked. Milk that is caught behind this blockage is then forced into surrounding breast tissue which in turn can cause any number of the following signs and symptoms:

  • Tenderness
  • Pain
  • Redness
  • Inflammation
  • Hardening/lumpiness
  • Decreased milk flow on the affected side

These may also be accompanied by:

  • Fever
  • Shivering and chills
  • General malaise
  • Fatigue

It is often believed that mastitis is an infection; however this is a popular misconception. Rather mastitis is an inflammatory process that can sometimes become infected. Hence antibiotics are often prescribed unnecessarily. If there is no infection present antibiotics simply will not help.

Treatment

Using soundwaves from a specialised therapeutic ultrasound machine the ducts can be unblocked, often in a short amount of time without drugs. Usually improvements in the above symptoms are felt after the first session (in some cases only one session is needed to resolve all symptoms) with most resolving after 2-3 sessions.

Many women come into our clinic, sleep deprived, in pain and stressed out. Mastitis can be a painful condition that not only affects mum but the baby as well. Mastitis makes feeding time all the more difficult. This can make both mum and bub very distressed and upset especially if both breasts are affected.

Health Point Physiotherapy Clinic is one of a few physiotherapy practices around Melbourne that uses ultrasound in the treatment of mastitis. On top of this the practitioners at Health Point Physiotherapy use specialist equipment and post graduate qualifications to aid in the use of ultrasound in the treatment of a number of ailments.