Hail the Mighty Cabbage

Here is an unkind equation: Breastfeeding = Pain. At least at the beginning, when your breasts do not know how to manage the amount of food they are producing. They get full and, YES, this can hurt. Your breasts get to the size of a melon, so hard you could hit a nail with them, so heavy that you need to hold them when turn in bed, so full that they spray milk in all directions when you lift your bra. Don’t mention the time when the milk ducts get clogged. Ouch!!!

My sister in law was not sympathetic. She simply said “cabbage leaves”. Just wash them, roll them to soften and slap them under your bra before it gets any worse. Hearing this I am thanking the gods that we live in the twenty first century. Otherwise this poor girl would be burned alive for heresy and witchcraft. Surely, cabbage leaves are not a medicine and cannot remedy anything? Except maybe mild hunger. The fact that none of the midwifes mentioned it only proves my point.

But then I go to the doctor and, in passing conversation, mention my engorged milk dispensers. He says simply “cabbage leaves”. Put them on before it gets any more serious. Straight from the doctor’s office I run to the local shop and get a nice round white cabbage. I wash the leaves, soften them with a roller and slap them on, under my bra. With this I massage, and keep feeding the baby from the affected breast. Within a few hours my breasts are back to soft kittens and the pain is gone. I repeat the cabbage treatment every time my breasts feel uncomfortably engorged or the milk ducts get clogged. Although there is no medical proof to support cabbage leaves in my bra, I thank the grandma that first stuffed them in. I am just glad it wasn't rhubarb.