What is "breast engorgement"?

What is "breast engorgement"?

Rebecca Charlton (Lactation Educator & Registered Dietitian, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles) gives expert video advice on: How do I soothe the pain of engorged breasts?; Why do I get sore nipples after my baby feeds?; What should I do to alleviate sore nipples during breastfeeding? and more...

Breast engorgement is when the level of milk contained in the mother's breast is greater than the areola or the size that they have to contain it. It's basically what happens when you overfill the container. Breast engorgement can happen for a lot of reasons. The most common is just that the baby hasn't taken the milk out the way the body expected. Babies teach the body how much milk they want by suckling, so when the baby goes to the breast on a day when it wants more comfort, it teaches the body to just have a lot of milk on hand. The next day, the baby might not want as much milk, and so the mother gets very pained and very uncomfortable because her breasts have overfilled amd so are engorged.