Q. As a Registered Nurse, I am often skeptical of herbs and home remedies. When I had a baby, I wanted to breastfeed, but I had a lot of problems with breast engorgement initially. My breasts were so swollen and painful, I couldn’t even think of nursing the baby (though that would have resolved the problem). The pain and engorgement got worse and worse.
My mother suggested putting towels soaked in hot water around the breasts, to relax them. This only helped a little. Then my mother called my grandmother, who is Native American, and she suggested using Mentholatum or Vicks VapoRub on the area around the nipple. Apparently, Native Americans and Hispanics have used mint for this purpose for generations.
My grandmother advised that the milk would come shooting out. I was thinking, “Yeah, right,” but the throbbing from my chest prompted me to throw my reservations to the wind.
Almost immediately after applying the ointment, a torrent of breast milk was released, to my huge relief. I cleaned the ointment off the breast with soap and water before nursing the baby.
This treatment may be irritating or impossible for a woman whose skin is broken or cracked, but it worked wonders for me.
A. The standard recommendations for breast engorgement include breastfeeding as soon as possible, hot or cold compresses, a warm shower before nursing, and manual expression or use of a breast pump to remove some of the extra milk. Some breastfeeding advisors suggest placing cabbage leaves in the bra for relief, although a double blind study found no benefit from cabbage leaf extract (Journal of Human Lactation, Sept. 1998). We could find no research addressing the effects of menthol on breast engorgement.
