Severe Breast Pain Resolved with Pectoral Muscle Massage

Many mothers stop breastfeeding because of breast and/or nipple pain, despite recommendations by the World Health Organization to exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months. Most commonly, such pain is thought to be caused by fungal or bacterial infection; however, many women do not respond to usual treatments for such diagnoses. Furthermore, there is much dispute in the literature about these diagnoses and treatments. We submit a series of 3 cases of mothers who presented with severe mastalgia (breast pain) and who did not respond to conventional treatments. After treating the patients with pectoral muscle massage and stretching, they each had complete resolution of their pain. We suggest that each of these mothers experienced constriction of the upper thoracic muscles on their mammary neurovasculature.