Help-had to ween and did not taper down.

[susanmarilee]

Hi there,
I am donating oocytes to my sister who is unable to have a baby with her own eggs. Unfortunately, in order to do so I have to stop breast feeding my 11 month old one month before the procedure. Today was the one month marker and I pretty much stopped nursing my son cold turkey. He's doing ok but I am completely engorged and in pain. I am not able to express because I need my body to start producing more oocytes and breastfeeding diminishes the count. Any advice would be very appreciated or if anyone has gone through something similar I would love to hear what happened.
Thank you SO much!
Susan

[ktgrok]

You need to pump or nurse enough to relieve the engorgement or you will get mastitis. Can't you put off the procedure so you can taper down?

[Dmitrizmom]

pump just enough to relieve engorgement.
chilled cabbage leaves in your bra to decrease supply and relieve pain.

Good luck and best wishes.

[susanmarilee]

Unfortunately I can't postpone. Is mastitis a foregone conclusion?

[spughy]

Not necessarily - it's only mastitis if you have red streaks along your breast, spots of intense pain, and start spiking a fever. Simple engorgement hurts, but it's not dangerous.

You can also drink lots of really strong sage tea - that'll help bring your supply down quickly.

[lunarlady]

Antihistamines can help dry you up. So do hormones if you are going to do the shots to up your egg production, that will help. Binding can help, but it hurts if you are engorged. Best to releive the engorgement first, then put on a sports bra or binding. There are actually a few studies ghat show partial pumping does not affect supply. Meaningpumping just enough to releive the pain should not slow the drying up process. I know there are some scripts that are given to women to dry up milk, but I don't know if they are a safe mix with the procedure you are planning.

What a great sister you are to help her in this way! The gift of a child is a wonderful gift indeed.

[Viola]

You can express a small amount to relive the pain, but the pressure of the breasts being overly full with milk is what is sending the signal to stop producing. So maybe ice or chillpacks, the cabbage leaves should help just in cooling things off, and I agree with wearing something form fitting like a sports bra can help.

Mastitis is kind of a catch-all term, so while you may have an inflamed breast, you won't necessarily get an infection that needs antibiotics, you know? I just don't know if you will get clogged ducts that don't resolve when the swelling goes down. I think if that happens, you may have to pump at least to get that part out if it doesn't go down on it's own as you stop producing.