When should mastitis be treated with antibiotics?
Mastitis – inflammation of the breast tissue – is a common problem for breastfeeding women. Although it can be associated with bacterial infection, this is rarely its primary cause (see milk stasis – not infection – is the main cause of mastitis). Many doctors nevertheless choose to treat it with antibiotics, ‘just in case’ infection is present. Given the uncertain relationship between bacteria and mastitis, what are the benefits – and drawbacks – of taking antibiotic medication? There are disappointingly few properly controlled studies looking at the antibiotic treatment of mastitis. A recent Cochrane Review analyzing all the research in this area found only two studies that were sufficiently well designed or reported to provide unbiased evidence1. One study looked at the effects of two different types of antibiotic (Amoxicillin and Cephradine), and found that they were equally good at relieving symptoms. Unfortunately, as the study didn’t have a control group of women who did not tak
