Well, this whole "go braless" thing has kind of made me wonder:
exactly -how- does one go braless when breastfeeding? During the day,
it's simply not an option -- I have to go to work, and I can't have
"the girls" flopping and spraying about. Fortunately, the sports bras
I mentioned are super comfy and squash very little. But even at night,
I leak an awful lot. Even with towels or a blanket under me, I can
soak through quite easily (and it's very unpleasant to sleep on a wet
towel, too) . How does one manage without a bra to hold a nursing pad
in place?

well if they are not restrained, they may well leak less as they have more
room to expand, plus you can change the towel/nappy every time you feed, it
might be worth gritting your teeth against it because it's less unpleasant
than mastitis! As for day time, well depends when you get dressed and when
you get undressed, you can get dressed for the day later if possible and
similarly some people get in to PJs quite early, I also would always take my
bra off if I napped in the afternoon, so even if you do wear a bra when
dressed you can probably make that be less than 12 hours. You are saying
squash very little which is different to not squashing at all my nursing
bras do not squash one jot.


have you had any blocked ducts at other times that have cleared without
getting infected?

I've never had anything wrong, other than cracks/scabs that never did
anything but hurt, other than this mastitis, with either baby. I only
breastfed DD for 11 months, but still -- 11 months and no problems is a
far cry from four weeks and two infections!

well that's lucky, I had a bout of mastitis that hospitalised me with number
1 as well as endless weight gain issues plus thrush, but at least thrush
that cleared up with cream, I thought it could only get better! I was wrong
I had mastitis, though nowhere near as bad and with my history I didn't wait
in getting to the doctors and we hit it with a high dose of multiple drugs,
I also had thrush which was stubborn and needed the oral stuff, I've had the
mystery black nipple and all the way through a baby who just does not want
to turn her top lip out and as it's an abnormal latch error it's not been
easy to fix and she still does it occassionally, oh and I had a cyst on my
nipple, but it was too small to aspirate but big enough to be a problem!

Anne