Mastitis Mabel — Mastitis: Flu-Like Fever, a Red Wedge & Keep Nursing
A hot red wedge on one breast and a 102 fever — and the treatment is to keep breastfeeding, not stop
Ten days postpartum, Mabel wakes with chills, a 102 fever and body aches. Her left breast has a hot, hard red wedge, and she asks if she must stop nursing.
Mabel has mastitis, an infection of breast tissue usually caused by Staphylococcus aureus entering through a cracked nipple, made worse by milk stasis from missed or incomplete feedings. It is almost always one-sided: a firm, red, hot, wedge-shaped area with flu-like fever, chills and body aches. The counterintuitive nursing answer the exam loves: continue breastfeeding or pumping to empty the breast. Emptying relieves the stasis that feeds the infection, and the milk is safe for a healthy term infant.
Read Mastitis Mabel's full story →The story arc
The setup
Mabel's nipples cracked early, and this week the baby slept through two night feedings on the same side.
The turn
She develops chills, aching muscles and a temperature of 102 F, and assumes she has the flu.
The crisis
Her left breast has a firm, red, hot wedge-shaped area, and she stops nursing on that side because it hurts.
The save
Mabel takes the full antibiotic course, continues breastfeeding and pumping to empty the breast, applies warmth before feeding, rests and increases fluids.
NCLEX study section — Mastitis: Flu-Like Fever, a Red Wedge & Keep Nursing
What this chapter is testing: the recognition cues, the numbers and the priority action.
Study section: Maternal & Newborn
Take this chapter into practice questions on the same topic.