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  "id": "maternal:lactational-mastitis",
  "owner": "maternal",
  "kind": "condition",
  "slug": "lactational-mastitis",
  "name": "Mastitis and related breast inflammation during breastfeeding (mother)",
  "aliases": [
    "Lactational mastitis",
    "Puerperal mastitis"
  ],
  "atlases": [
    "maternal"
  ],
  "summary_plain": "Mastitis is inflammation of the breast, usually while a woman is breastfeeding. It may or may not involve infection. A WHO review says poor breastfeeding technique that leaves milk in the breast is an important underlying cause, and that many health professionals may advise women to stop breastfeeding when they do not need to.",
  "summary_technical": "This page rests on the overview of a WHO review of 2000 (WHO/FCH/CAH/00.13, 45 pages, who.int page date 23 March 2000; more than 26 years old), which defines mastitis, names breast abscess as a severe complication and says it can occasionally be fatal if inadequately treated. No treatment advice is recorded because only the overview was read. The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine's 2022 clinical protocol on the mastitis spectrum was not used: its abstract holds only the Academy's description of its protocols and a note on inclusive language, its full text was not read, and PubMed lists an erratum for it. The recipient is the breastfeeding mother.",
  "editorial_state": "draft",
  "last_substantive_edit": "2026-10-15",
  "last_evidence_check": "2026-10-15",
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      "life-stage": [
        "postpartum"
      ],
      "care-area": [
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  "payload": {
    "recognition": "The WHO review describes an inflammatory condition of the breast that may or may not be accompanied by infection and is usually associated with lactation.",
    "assessment": null,
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      "category": "descriptive",
      "statement": "A WHO review of 2000 describes mastitis as an inflammatory condition of the breast that may or may not be accompanied by infection and is usually associated with lactation, so it is also called lactational or puerperal mastitis. It says mastitis can occasionally be fatal if inadequately treated, and that breast abscess, a localised collection of pus in the breast, is a severe complication. It says awareness is growing that inefficient removal of milk from poor breastfeeding technique is an important underlying cause, but that mastitis remains synonymous with breast infection in the minds of many health professionals, who are often unable to help a woman with the condition continue to breastfeed and may advise her unnecessarily to stop.",
      "context": {
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        "label": "Women who are breastfeeding and may develop mastitis (WHO 2000 review)",
        "recipient": "maternal",
        "population": "Women with mastitis, the inflammatory condition of the breast that is usually associated with lactation.",
        "care_setting": "Not stated in the overview that was read (a WHO review of causes and management).",
        "geography": "Global (a WHO publication)",
        "life_stage_note": "The period of lactation after birth",
        "life_stage_terms": {
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        "gestational_age_max_days": null,
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        "followup_description": "Not applicable (descriptive overview).",
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            "Breastfeeding women with mastitis or at risk of it"
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      "limitations": "The who.int page date is 23 March 2000, so the statements are more than 26 years old and later practice may differ. Only the page overview was read, not the 45-page document, so no treatment advice is recorded. The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine's 2022 protocol on the mastitis spectrum has an abstract that contains only the Academy's description of its protocols and a note on inclusive language, its full text was not read, and PubMed lists an erratum for it, so no claim rests on it.",
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