The Best Way to Open Your Milk Ducts: Breast Massage

Breast Massage for Nursing Mothers

Simple massage movements, which you will apply just before you start breastfeeding or withdraw your milk with a pump, will allow the milk produced by your body to move through the channels better. This helps your baby get better use of breast milk. In addition, by doing breast massage, you can take precautions against problems such as mastitis caused by clogged milk ducts. So, how should breastfeeding mothers do breast massage? How to prevent clogged milk ducts? Here is the answer…

How to Do Breast Massage?

Massage Movement Before Breastfeeding

When you start breastfeeding, the shorter it takes for milk to pass through the ducts and reach your baby, the less likely your baby will be irritable. That's why you can make the milk come faster by massaging your breast before you start breastfeeding. So how do we do this? First, grasp your breast from above and below with your palm. Slowly advance your hand from the area where your breast attaches to the rib cage, that is, from the base to the nipple (towards the brown area), applying light pressure. In the same way, while grasping your breast with your palm, you can gently move your chest up and down. Finally, use your fingertips to scan various areas of your chest in circular motions. Thanks to these simple but effective movements, your milk will flow through the ducts more easily and the feeling of fullness in your breast will disappear.

Massage Movements You Can Do During Breastfeeding

Applying light pressure to your breast during breastfeeding will not only facilitate milk flow, but also prevent clogging of ducts that are prone to clogging and help open clogged ducts. This technique is especially useful for babies who sleep while breastfeeding and have low suction power. So, how do we do the massage during breastfeeding? First of all, you need to observe your baby well. As soon as you take a break from sucking, you can stroke your breast from head to toe with small movements, and stimulate the channels with circular movements. You should do this application when your baby stops sucking and you should not bring your hand too close to the nipple.

Benefits of Breast Massage for Breastfeeding Mothers

• Prevents clogging of milk channels,
• Helps open clogged channels,
• It enables babies with low sucking power to benefit from breast milk more efficiently,
• It allows the feeling of fullness in the breasts to pass, thus making the mother more comfortable.