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Breastfeeding: when it hurts, or you’re not sure it’s working
For anyone who is breastfeeding or trying to, in the first days or months in, and for the people beside them. This page passes on, by name, what MedlinePlus, the Office on Women’s Health (OWH), the CDC, WIC Breastfeeding Support and the Department of Labor say: how to tell whether your baby is getting enough, sore nipples and the latch, engorgement, plugged ducts and breast infection, what you can eat, drink and take, pumping and how long milk keeps, your rights to pump at work, and formula and stopping. It builds the questions to ask at a visit. Take only what you need today.
Right now
- A fever, with a red, hot, tender area on one breast? MedlinePlus says a breast infection (mastitis) causes aching muscles, fever, and a red, hot, tender area on one breast, and says to contact your provider if you develop these symptoms.
- Both breasts affected, pus or blood in your milk, red streaks, or symptoms that came on severely and suddenly? OWH says to see your doctor right away.
- Worried your baby is not getting enough? OWH says to talk to your baby’s doctor, and that the signs to watch are wet diapers, bowel movements and weight gain: its first-week diaper chart is in this guide. MedlinePlus says to talk with your baby’s provider right away if you are worried about how your baby is growing.
- Thoughts of hurting yourself or your baby? Call or text 988 at any time. You can also call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline, 1-833-852-6262.
- Want to talk to someone about feeding today? OWH’s helpline is 1-800-994-9662. Its page says Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time, in English or Spanish.
If you cannot reach a provider and you are frightened for yourself or your baby, go to an emergency room or call 911. That line is ours, and so is the 988 line. This page is not for emergencies.
More help
- After the birth, coverage, WIC and rights at work: Pregnant, or with a new baby.
- If your mood is low: Postpartum depression.
- If your employer will not let you pump: When something is wrong at work.
- For a visit: Get ready for your appointment and My medicines.
- Birth control: Birth control: finding what fits. Smoking: When you want to quit smoking.
- Food and WIC: When you need food.
- No insurance: When you need a doctor and can’t pay.
- All our free tools.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse, midwife or lactation consultant has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 9, 2026 on five government websites. On MedlinePlus, from the National Library of Medicine, four pages of its Medical Encyclopedia, each read in English and in Spanish: Overcoming breastfeeding problems (reviewed July 1, 2025), Breastfeeding: self-care (reviewed November 8, 2024), Breastfeeding vs. formula feeding (reviewed April 5, 2025) and Breast infection (reviewed October 17, 2024). On womenshealth.gov, from the Office on Women’s Health, in English: Common breastfeeding challenges, Making breastmilk, and Pumping and storing breastmilk (each updated October 23, 2025), and its helpline page (updated December 17, 2020). On cdc.gov: Breast Milk Storage and Preparation (reviewed March 25, 2026). On WIC Breastfeeding Support, from the Department of Agriculture: Low Milk Supply. On dol.gov: Pump at Work (revised January 2026). The page says whose words it is passing on, and what is marked “ours” is our own. The sources write about “mothers” and “women”, and where we pass on their words we keep them. Where the sources differ: MedlinePlus describes the federal pump-at-work law more narrowly than the Department of Labor does, and this page follows the Department. What we left out or did not read: the steps for a latch and the breastfeeding holds (OWH has pages with pictures that we did not read); MedlinePlus’s table of food servings and its list of the benefits of breastfeeding; two MedlinePlus lines that press the reader without adding a fact; OWH’s line about the flu, which we could not check against a current page; OWH’s steps for oversupply, a strong let-down and reverse pressure softening; every price, including what a pump or formula costs; how to choose, prepare or store formula; cleaning pump parts; milk for a premature or sick baby; any page written for people with HIV; whether break time to pump is paid; any state’s law; the name, label or dose of any medicine; and the hotline’s own pages (what we say about the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline is what the National Institute of Mental Health says, read for our postpartum depression guide). We called no number. It saves nothing and loads no tracking.