http://www.easternrangeslactation.com/

Eastern Ranges Lactation, P. O. Box 735, Cockatoo (2025)

04/11/2025

When a breast becomes engorged the pressure from swelling and increased blood flow can be extremely uncomfortable and painful.
What is being felt is NOT the pressure from milk, it’s pressure from congestion, increased blood flow (hyperaemia) and interstitial fluid (oedema) ✅
Pumping to relieve pressure may provide some short term relief, but this relief is only going to be very short lived. In the long term pumping is only going to make things a whole lot worse!
Pumping not only stimulates more milk to be made which is already struggling to get out, it draws more fluid and blood flow into the already swollen congestion breast tissue.
Introducing a pump to “manage” engorgement does not “protect” milk supply it “risks” it, by creating more congestion in a gland that IS getting blocked, but not from milk .
Milk is not the problem 🤷‍♀️

Supporting the lactating breast tissue CORRECTLY during this physiological process IS what prevents worsening symptoms and unnecessary complications ✅
Continue to breastfeed your baby, gently hand express if your baby is not latching. Less stimulation is going to help clear congestion, over stimulation won’t 🤷‍♀️
ICE, ICE, ICE your swollen engorged breast. You can’t ice too much ✅
Ice will provide pain relief and comfort while it's working to open up milk ducts, making it easier for milk to flow again.
Remember not to massage ✅🙏🙏🙏
Lactating breast tissue is like delicate coral , especially when it’s under pressure ✅
Gentle lymphatic drainage using an open flat hand to gently stroke backwards at the pressure of patting a cat really helps ✅
A supportive bra helps reduce any dependent swelling (oedema) ✅
Early postpartum engorgement is often misdiagnosis as mastitis. Incorrect management IS what turns a normal physiological process into a breast tissue complication that is totally avoidable.🤷‍♀️ It is normal for the skin the look pink during early postpartum engorgement. You are experiencing congestive symptoms in highly metabolic gland that is SUPER susceptible to becoming SWOLLEN and flooded with increased blood flow not infection 🤷‍♀️
The lactating breast tissue is actually very resistant to infection unless it is taken there by inappropriate management - AKA massaging and pumping!!
The lactating breast IS SO misunderstood!!

31/10/2025

In a world where breastfeeding advice is so conflicting, confusing and down right crazy! It’s no wonder maternal anxiety levels in the postpartum period are through the roof 🤷‍♀️

Heightened anxiety during lactation can manifest in ongoing ni**le and breast pain, low milk production, overproduction, mastitis and it’s complications, and even physical symptoms in a baby.
When you look past breasts, ni**les and the baby you see the root cause of so many breastfeeding challenges - heightened anxiety.
You can see the whole human in front of you and you can see the fear driving physical symptoms and feeding difficulties.

My days are spent not only holding babies but “holding” mothers and parents. ❤️
Normalising what our world and society wants to see as broken.

I am the calming voice in the deafening noise of worry and concern.
I am the steady guidance amongst the chaos of fear driven parenting advice.
Anxiety is not a “dirty” word 🤷‍♀️
Anxiety is not a weakness 🤷‍♀️
It’s a state that all humans find themselves in along this journey through life. Especially during times of vulnerability. There is no greater time of vulnerability in a woman’s life when she is birthed as a mother 😊

Anxiety makes breastfeeding and everything to do with nurturing a tiny human so much harder than it’s meant to be.
Post natal mood and anxiety disorder is the number one complication of birth. And yet it is rarely talked about in the lactation world as a cause of any feeding difficulties 🤷‍♀️
Untreated anxiety can make breastfeeding feel horrible!
Gently, respectfully and without judgement my work helps new parents to acknowledge the impact “ heightened anxiety” is having on breastfeeding. ❤️
Reducing fear is one of my most powerful lactation skills. 🙌
And it’s not surprising that my mummas continue to breastfeed 🙏
Once the huge mental health overlap into lactation is acknowledged and respected, you can REALLY help breastfeeding.
Once breastfeeding is going well, it then becomes so supportive of mental health 🙌

24/10/2025

Triple feeding plans are torture!!!
'Triple feeding' is when a mother is instructed to breastfeed her baby, pump for 20-30mins after and then bottle feed her baby expressed milk and/or formula every 3 hours or sometimes even 2 hours on repeat!!
It a common standard responsive plan for slow weight gain. 😕
It's beyond exhausting both physically and mentally!
Sleep deprivation is unavoidable after having a baby. A triple feeding plan ENSURES a new mother gets NO sleep!
Triple feeding plans do not end in exclusive breastfeeding. The majority end in weaning and a traumatised mum! 😔
A recommendation to "triple feed" is a huge red flag signalling that expert lactation assessment and guidance is required.✅
Often it's ineffective milk removal from sub optimal positioning, and / or incorrect pump equipment that is the cause of slow weight gain. ✅
A triple feeding plan addresses the "symptom" but not the cause 🤷‍♀️
Unfortunately the majority of health care professionals do not have the skills required to fully assess breastfeeding and correct any issues presenting.
They also do not have the TIME!
A very sad situation that's the fault of our health system 😔😡
Check the pumps meaning both the baby and the pump ✅
Correcting sub optimal positioning and attachment is essential ✅
Switch feed ✅
Check all breast pump equipment, including correct fl**ge size ✅
24hr total volume intake is the key rather than strict intervals between feeding. ✅
Support maternal mental health don’t crucify it ✅
No sleep and exacerbating maternal anxiety = less milk ✅
A full medical history and assessment needs to be taken to identify any pathology in mum or baby for slow weight gain, don’t just bandaid it with formula ✅
For help with slow weight gain or to end the torture of a triple feeding plan please reach out for my support. One on one individualised mentoring sessions also available for any interested health care professionals wanting to learn how to manage slow weight gain without implementing a triple feeling plan!
It’s no wonder breastfeeding continuation rates are in the toilet when it’s made so hard! If we know better we can do better 🙏

17/10/2025

The feed-play-sleep routine is designed for bottle fed babies. ✅
Breastfed babies have their entree, , main & after a play are expecting their dessert 🤷‍♀️
Formula feeding & breastfeeding is like comparing apples and oranges.
Breastfed babies eat like we do!
Like humans do!! Like toddlers do!!
They have their lunch and go back for a drink or a snack soon after 😊
During the day they graze ✅
Breastmilk helps babies to calm and wind down for sleep. ✅
If you are struggling to get your breastfed baby down for a daytime nap and you are following a feed-play-sleep routine - this is why 🤷‍♀️
If your baby’s weight is slowing and you are following a feed-play-sleep routine this maybe why? 🤷‍♀️
If your milk production is slowing or struggling and you are following this routine this may be the problem 🤷‍♀️
Breastfeeding is not always “full meals”. Breastfeeding is “responsive feeding”, grazing or snack feeds ARE normal!!! Just like you reach for your drink bottle or another cuppa multiple times a day, it’s NORMAL for a baby as they move out of the newborn phase to feed very adhoc and non routinely during the day. They feed according not only to hunger but to thirst and for emotional needs. Your breastmilk is designed to help with inducing sleep. You don’t have to feed to sleep ( although this is biologically normal), offering your baby another quick feed before sleep is your super power , it helps , it is normal and is how breastfeeding works ✅
It’s difficult when routine baby advice is given, as it doesn’t factor in the breastfed baby 🤷‍♀️
These routines are designed for bottle fed babies. They are touted as the norm but can run a breastfeeding mumma into problems 😐

08/10/2025

Feeling deflated off the back of 3 local mums requiring hospital admission for a breast abscess caused by massaging, heat and over production.
This post is another plea to spread the word about NOT MASSAGING 🙏🙏🙏
These mums were not clients of mine.
None of the mums under my care and watch suffer with mastitis or its complications.
Two of these mums I am now involved with, but they found me too late 😔
Totally preventable that’s the sad part!!
Now they are in a hospital system that’s doing its best but does not have any surgeons trained in lactation 😔
Yes you read this right!!!🤯🤯🤯🤯
In fact there are currently only 2 breast surgeons in the world 🌎 who are also trained & knowledgeable in breastfeeding medicine 🤯🤯
Both are in the US - one is Dr Katrina Mitchell and the other is a colleague of Katrina’s who she shared her knowledge with.
This is a world wide social injustice!!
This would not be the case if men’s breasts could lactate and feed a baby!! 😡 We would have the best surgical care and trained lactation surgeons for them. 🤷‍♀️
These last 2 weeks have been hard knowing that I could of easily prevented what these mums are now experiencing 😔
The suffering is indescribable 😔
No one talks about the physical and mental scares these women will carry for life.
Their breasts are a mess 😔
One has already lost milk production in her affected breast. 😔
I am desperately trying to keep her breastfeeding going using only one breast now if we can 🙏
Prevention is the only way I can really help until Dr Katrina Mitchell can teach the medical world a better, more effective & simpler way to manage & resolve a breast abscess in a lactating breast 😐 She can drain and cure an abscess effectively with one procedure in her office without a mum having to be even admitted to hospital 🙌
Any person still supporting the recommendation to use heat and any repeated massage, no matter how gentle is risking the health of lactating mothers and their babies!!
Simple as that 🤷‍♀️
Seek expert lactation help if you are experiencing any swelling, inflammation or lumps in your breasts and please keep hands off your breasts!!!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

30/09/2025

✅ It is a MYTH that too much ice has a negative impact on milk production.

✅ Frequent ice packs on an engorged breast or an area of the breast which is engorged , swollen or inflamed DOES NOT cause low milk production!!!! 🤯

✅ The quicker you can reduce swelling, hyperaemia( increased blood flow) and inflammation around the innumerable tiny compressed milk ducts, the quicker you get milk flowing out of the breast again. 🙌

✅ The quicker you can get milk flowing, the more effective milk removal will be. You NEED effective milk removal to protect milk production and milk supply

✅ You may see a reduction in expressed milk volumes during engorgement or mastitis, this is caused by oedema (swelling) predominantly and , inflammation. The tissue congestion IS what’s reducing milk supply - NOT ICE!

✅ The longer milk can’t get out of the breast due to swelling or inflammation the greater risk to ongoing milk supply

✅ There is no point over stimulating a breast more if milk can’t get out due to swelling.
Doing this makes swelling worse and blocks it more 🤷‍♀️

✅ It may be overproduction that’s resulting in mastitis symptoms, slowing milk production down may be a good thing!

✅ Don’t be afraid of ICE!
It reduces pain dramatically and is the best defence against milk flow being blocked & the flow on effect of slowed milk production.

✅ The more icing the quicker everything gets better!

Those flimsy marketed ice packs are useless!! They melt in 2 mins and don’t give enough ice coverage. 🤷‍♀️ Very often if there is alot of engoremement you need ice under your breast and high up towards
your armpit ✅

✅ Frozen peas decanted into zip lock bags are cheap, accessible , comfortable and make perfecf sized ice packs to rotate through the freezer. They stay cold for at least 2 hours and can be secured inside a bra or crop top

✅ The truth IS ICE protects your milk supply!

✅ And remember hands off breasts - NO MASSAGING 🙏🙏

I have seen another nasty breast abscess this week with dire consequences for both mum and baby from advice to massage out a blockage and feed more!! 🤯
What this poor mum has been through is just SO sad and even sadder and infuriating when you know it was ALL preventable 😔😡
If only she had found me in the beginning 😔

Seek help from an IBCLC or Dr who is an expert in the new mastitis, engorgement , blockage management recommendations.
Anyone who tells you to massage EVEN gently or to pump/ feed more is NOT an expert 🤷‍♀️

25/09/2025

There is a difference between inflammatory mastitis & infectious mastitis. ✅
The vast majority of mastitis presentations I see on repeat, are inflammatory mastitis.
Very rarely do I come across infectious mastitis unless a mum has massaged or pumped their way to infection.

Many types of inflammation in the body produce redness and systemic symptoms without being infectious.✅
Mastitis symptoms can also mimic panic attack symptoms including sweating, flushing, alternating with shaking chills and racing heart rate.✅
It’s no surprise that there is a huge overlap of panic into a mastitis presentation when a mother fears a sudden infection has developed in her breast out of no where 🤷‍♀️
The FEAR around mastitis is HUGE in both mums and health professionals 😔

Mums will sometimes describe sleeping through the night with their baby, and they awake to mastitis in the morning. It is not physiologically possible to have an infection develop that quickly unless it is an extremely rare flesh-eating bacteria that generally impacts chronically ill people — not healthy mums.
What mums are describing is inflammation and tissue swelling in the setting of transient engorgement.
Cytokines from inflammation can make you feel unwell ✅
We already know this from other areas in medicine 🤷‍♀️

ICE packs should be implemented as soon as possible. ✅
When ICE is used early and consistently swelling, pain and systemic symptoms improve quickly.
Skin redness (erythema) can look worse & spread further before getting better & then quickly disappearing. Erythema typically peaks around day 3 or 4 from the onset of early breast symptoms.

Without question, mums should NOT MASSAGE their breasts as this worsens swelling and pain. It prolongs mastitis and can progress it to infection. ✅

When do you need to worry & seek medical attention??
✅If swelling and pain in your breast is getting worse after 48hrs of consistent frequent icing
✅If you are feeling more unwell with no improvement in the way you feel after 48hrs of consistent frequent icing
✅If the redness on your breast and pain is getting worse after day 4 despite consistent icing.
✅If you have any raised painful hot red lumps ( especially if you have been massaging no matter how gentle)

If concerned or worried about your mastitis symptoms not resolving at any stage seek help from an IBCLC or a GP who IS up to date with CURRENT mastitis management 🙏🙏🙏🙏

There IS a reason why my client population does not fear mastitis or suffer from it’s complications ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅

19/09/2025

This is my parent handout for managing mastitis, blockages and engorgement.
Please share with any new breastfeeding mumma or parent & anyone offering mastitis advice!
The message is still not getting out there about the risk of ANY massage 😔
New mums are still being advised
to hop in a hot shower and massage when experiencing early PP engorgement. 🤷‍♀️
Rumours are spreading that ice is bad for milk production and too much icing can cause low milk production 🤯
Any sign of redness on the
breast is still feared to be a sudden invasion of harmful bacteria! 😔
Systemic INFLAMMATORY symptoms are still being interpreted as infection. Mums still living in fear of mastitis are presenting in a state of panic to hospitals ( literally having a panic attack inducing physical symptoms like vomiting, fainting, fevers, racing heart rates etc etc etc.) 😔
We are making some progress but there is a lot of work to still be done!
I will be posting more about mastitis in the coming weeks.
So look out for new posts!!
I need to step my education up again! The fear around something that is actually more normal than abnormal is astounding, so much conditioning to undo!!
Mastitis is easily preventable and easily managed. ✅ It is not something to be feared!
Young healthly women just don’t wake up with infective mastitis and a terrible infection raging through their breasts and body 🤷‍♀️
They don't end up with breast complications like abscesses unless they have been massaging or feeding/pumping their way to severe over production.
Massaging and overproduction ARE the 2 leading risk factors for developing infective mastitis & any complication of mastitis. ✅
Managing mastitis correctly,
with lots of ICE & NO massaging resolves it. ✅
The more you ice the quicker it gets better! ✅
So keep those frozen peas on before feeds, after feeds, and as
much as you can ✅
I promise you will end up with more milk than less milk the quicker you can get that swelling and inflammation down 🙏

13/09/2025

Where did this belief actually come from 🤔
My guess is that women were led to believe this by a historical patriarchal society which fashioned many past women’s beliefs 🙁

I remember the first book I ever read about breastfeeding being titled “The art of breastfeeding”
I remember thinking about it’s title & wondering if I would just naturally be good at this mysterious art of breastfeeding womanhood 🤔
As much as we love to fantasise about breastfeeding being this wonderful organic work of art between mother and baby that just comes naturally, the reality is that it doesn’t happen like this for every woman.
Some may argue differently if they were lucky emough to have an “artful” experience. Our dwindling breastfeeding continuation rates certainly do not reflect that the majority of women are having an “easy” experience with breastfeeding 🤷‍♀️

The medical world has left lactation behind & left it to the believers that still think of it as an art.
And to those who are still practicing a form of lactation science that has literally been frozen in a time warp.
Historically women have been told very little about how their bodies work & what they have been told has been grossly incorrect.
Breastfeeding is a modern day example of “secret women’s business”still at work!

It’s hard to fathom just how wrong they got mastitis in a time when robots are operating on humans & laparoscopic procedures have revolutionised the way we can now avoid major surgery 🤷‍♀️

Not many care about breastfeeding as it doesn’t make money ✅
The majority are happy for it continue to be seen as an “art” instead of a medical science which demands research and dedicated lactation medical specialists 🤷‍♀️

Low continuation rates cannot be solely blamed on the persuasive formula feeding industry. 🤷‍♀️
Yes, they have alot to answer for, but so too does the neglect from the medical world to not even consider before now that breastfeeding medicine is a specialty. ✅

The majority of women want to breastfeed their baby. ✅
Initiation is up around 96%!!!
It falls off the cliff quickly because breastfeeding has been made so much harder than it was ever supposed to be!

For too long breastfeeding has been glorified as a natural art form in womanhood or vilified as something unachievable without experiencing physical & emotional suffering.
The tide is now hopefully changing🙏

Look out for Dr Katrina Mitchell’s book due for publication Aug 2026 🙌
The science behind breastfeeding is being rewritten and brought into this century 🙏

Once breastfeeding is going well it is a beautiful art & act of nature 🙌
Correct science helps to paint the beautiful canvas breastfeeding should be 🙏

08/09/2025

NO & NO !!!
1. Breasts cannot be fully “emptied” or “drained”!! Milk production is CONTINUOUS. The lactocytes NEVER take a pause or stop 🤷‍♀️
2. Even as your baby is drinking milk, more is being made in that same breast! The ducts don’t store milk.
3. A lot of the “softness” experienced after feeding, especially in the early PP period is tissue fluid dispersing as well as milk flowing out of the breast.
4. Your breast may be producing more milk than your baby can ever consume in one feed 🤷‍♀️
5. Leaving a sleepy newborn on the one breast for long periods of time does not equate to more milk being swallowed. If you want to ensure your newborn is getting enough - switch breasts frequently!
6. The longer you leave your second breast the slower milk will be produced.
7. There are NOT 2 types of milk in a breast 🤷‍♀️ To get enough fat babies need enough volume ✅
8. A lot of a young babies time spent “draining” or “emptying” a breast is spent sleeping or soothing.
9. You can actually CAUSE mastitis instead of prevent it, by leaving your baby for too long on an over producing breast trying to drain or empty it ✅
10. A cause of mastitis is NOT a breast that hasn’t been fully drained or emptied. Swelling and inflammation can come into the breast just as part of the normal changes in the SPEED of milk production, not because your baby hasn’t drained it well enough. 🤷‍♀️
11. Offer your baby both breasts especially when they are newborns. Don’t time feeding, look for the “quality” of the feed. Learn to recognise when your baby is “actively drinking”. A short “active” feed can be so much more effective
than long “ineffective” feeds.
12. If your baby happens to only want one breast & is gaining weight well then this is ok too. ✅
13. Some overproducing mums need to feed off only one side at each feed. Not to fully drain but to help slow milk production down.
14. It’s ok for babies to feed off 1 breast or switch sides multiple times. There are no set rules. A baby will feed according to its own mother’s speed of milk production & speed fluctuates!
15. Babies are smarter than we think ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅

31/08/2025

Resolving ongoing ni**le pain can be tricky! A lot of lactation expertise & skill is required to avoid ending up down many pathology rabbit holes!

Unresolved / undiagnosed pain is a leading cause of breastfeeding cessation 😔
There usually multiple factors contributing to chronic unresolved ni**le pain. ✅

Up to date knowledge around what I call the “unseen pain”, neuropathic lactational pain is an essential part of any lactational pain assessment ✅
It’s an essential part of being able to make an accurate/ correct pain diagnosis. ✅

Second only to sub optimal positioning and attachment , NEUROPATHIC ni**le pain IS the most common cause of ongoing, unresolved ni**le pain ✅

Ni**le/ areolar dermatitis IS common - thrush is NOT ✅

Neuropathic ni**le pain is commonly misdiagnosed as vasospasm ✅

Vasospasm is NOT a common diagnosis ✅

A baby should NEVER have oral laser surgery to treat ongoing ni**le pain.✅

Unfortunately breastfeeding medicine has been the forgotten medical specialty!!

So sad for women! 😞

We have every other kind of medical specialist for every other organ in the human body for pain assessment, except we don’t have one dedicated to the lactating breast 🤷‍♀️🤯
Hopefully this will change with the work of a few Drs around the world who are currently working tirelessly challenging this history & traditional breastfeeding medical knowledge 🙌 We need to train up our Drs 🙏

If you are experiencing chronic, ongoing ni**le or breast pain I can help ✅
Before you end up down a million different pathology rabbit holes or give up on breastfeeding altogether reach out for my help ✅

If you are supporting breastfeeding & offering breastfeeding medical advice in relation to pain, I can help you to up skill & learn about neuropathic ni**le pain. ✅
I can teach you when to know it’s not thrush! 🙈✅

We need to know better to
help better🙏

Change is here , we need to keep it rolling to save breastfeeding & save maternal mental health 🙏🙏🙏🙏

25/08/2025

Massaging continues to be recommended in the breastfeeding world 😡
People have to changed advice to “gentle massaging”, but they just can’t imagine a world where breastfeeding massage is not required 🤷‍♀️
It’s really like breastfeeding just can’t exist without massaging being part of it 🙈
Like, it’s just SO important and integral to health of mums breasts and to baby’s being able to get milk 🙈
I am baffled as to why it is SO difficult for people to comprehend that any repetitive massaging of this delicate gland however gentle is STILL a risk!
I am witnessing the incidence of severe mastitis cases & abscesses significantly decreasing since the spread of new knowledge around mastitis management & understanding 🙌🙌🎉
I am not seeing mashed up and bashed up breasts like I used to 3-4 years ago! 🙌🙌🎉
The massaging gadgets are mostly gone 🙏
The disappointing news is that there are unfortunately still mums being admitted to hospital with abscesses from massaging & heat 😔
So frustrating when all this is SO preventable!!!
The reality IS even “gentle” repeated massage can still cause tissue damage. ✅
The reality is every ones “perception” of “gentle” is different ✅
The reality is at 2am in the morning a mum desperate to avoid mastitis doesn’t realise that gentle means stroking or brushing at the pressure of stroking their baby’s face. ✅
What other mammal on this planet needs their milk making gland massaged or touched by anyone other than their baby??
You can assist or increase milk removal in the human breast in many other ways ✅
You seriously would think twice about pushing or squeezing milk through the innumerable tiny ductal system if you saw what it really looks like 🤷‍♀️So delicate , and so fragile - like coral! 🪸
I have practiced a NO massaging , hands off the breasts policy for the last 5 years now and my mums breasts are healthy and my breast feeding continuation rates are through the roof! 🙌
We are never going to reduce breast tissue complications to a level that we can & render them a very ‘rare’ occurrence until people can “let go” of the need for massaging & be confident in knowing that it is NOT an essential part of lactation care 🙏

Eastern Ranges Lactation

04/11/2025

31/10/2025

24/10/2025

17/10/2025

08/10/2025

30/09/2025

25/09/2025

19/09/2025

13/09/2025

08/09/2025

31/08/2025

25/08/2025

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