Oh clogged ducts! If you’ve had one before, you know what I’m talking about. Those painful, hard nodules and lumps in your breast that just don’t seem to budge. You know that if you don’t take care of them, not only are you in pain, but you have a higher chance of developing mastitis..ugh! BTW, interested in know how I overcame my bout of mastitis WITHOUT antibiotics, check out this post
If you google anything about how to alleviate clogged ducts, you will find blog post after blog post, about digging into your breast, using hot compresses, using a vibrator, being rough with your breast (*ouch*), taking sunflower lecithin, doing the Haakaa salt soak…etc etc
Honestly, there’s a MUCH better and faster and honestly kinder approach to alleviating clogged ducts and this is through gentle breast massage and breast gymnastics!
What is breast gymnastics?
What in the world is breast gymnastics?! I know, I was skeptical about this too when I learned about this at a breastfeeding conference, but breast gymnastics is the best thing ever I’ve ever learned for alleviating engorgement, mastitis, and CLOGGED DUCTS!
The term breast gymnastics was coined by IBCLC lactation consultant, Maya Bolman, where you gently (and ever so gently) pick up your breasts and move them around, providing your breast gentle movement.
We all know movement and stretching is important to our health. It helps with our circulation and helps get blood flowing. Well our breasts, which don’t get any movement at all since they just sit in our bras, need light gentle movement and stretching for proper breast health.
When you pick up your breasts and feel that stretch and move them side to side, you’re essentially elongating those ducts and getting milk flowing, which prevents and alleviates clogged ducts!
Check out the video I posted on Instagram on how to do breast gymnastics and therapeutic breast massage.
Maya Bolman, explains to us in an amazing interview I did with her, that our breasts are a gland that secretes milk;
it is NOT a muscle that you need to do a deep tissue massage on.
We need to be very very gentle with our breasts and put very light pressure, as much pressure as if you were giving your baby a face massage! Crazy right…where did all this deep tissue massaging and vibration on your breasts come from?
No idea, but it needs to STOP!
Why use gentle touch on our breasts instead of hard massages and vibration?
Have you ever sprained your wrist or your foot?
When you hurt yourself, your body swells up and inflames in order to protect the injury. You’re probably told to rest your foot and be very gentle with it. You may be given some ice to help with the inflammation and swelling as well.
Well clogged ducts are when breastmilk clumps together and essentially gets stuck and your milk ducts then swell up causing you pain and tenderness. Why on earth would we want to be rough on that inflamed clog and just cause more swelling? Sure the clog might go away, but what are your chances of it coming back and even affecting your milk supply?
Then we’re told to put heat on it? Heat on top of inflammation is not good, we want COLD. We want to ICE our inflamed clog to help with the swelling.
Since our breasts are a gland, we need to be gentle with how we handle our breast and practice Therapeutic Breast Massage in Lactation (TBML). Check out this cool study about how TBML helped parents with engorgement and clogged ducts here and here.
So what can you do to get rid of your clogged ducts as well as prevent future clogs?
- Daily breast gymnastics – do it every time you nurse/pump, in the shower, in the morning, in the evening before bed – just get your breasts and those milk ducts moving
- Put COLD compresses on your breasts to help with the swelling
- Do very light and gentle massaging around your breasts – do TBML
- Stay hydrated with the help of minerals (Grab my free guide)
- Assess your diet. Are you eating highly inflammatory foods like fried foods, refined oils and sugar?
- Eat a diet with anti-inflammatory foods – nuts, seeds, fatty fish, avocados, variety of vegetables
- Get to the ROOT issue of why you got the clog in the first place. Was it improper drainage from your baby or pump? A tight sports bra etc
Don’t believe breast gymnastics works? Take a look at these testimonials from other moms who started incorporating it after watching my reel
At Aloha Nutrition, we offer holistic support to help mothers regain energy and thrive postpartum. Through specialty lab testing and one-on-one coaching, our team of functional Registered Dietitians, International Board Certified Lactation Consultants, (and moms!) take a compassionate, root cause approach to nutrition and breastfeeding.
To learn how we can help you with your breastfeeding journey, click here.
To learn how I can help you with your nutrition journey, click here.
I’d love if you could tell me if you try breast gymnastics and what your experience was like. Leave me a comment below.
And I’d LOVE if you shared this amongst fellow moms or breastfeeding support groups… we need to get this information out there and be kind to our breasts!
