Breastworks

I didn’t even know a pregnant woman could get mastitis. Turns out anyone can at any time, male or female. The wife came down with it a few days back. Just a small lumpy red spot on a breast. All the details sounded like mastitis (which a new-mum friend of ours has right now, so I'm a bit up to date on the symptoms), but I thought, no way – you can only get that when lactating.

We looked it up in the Pregnancy Bible. The photo and description matched, but I was still dubious til the wife came home from the GP saying Yup. Mastitis. 5 to 7 days of stinky penicillin will be my friend. (Or something to that effect, she doesn't really talk like that). And that's when she explained that anyone can get it, or, more specifically, I could get it, it's just most common in lactating women.

So the antibiotics seem to be having an effect. And since she noticed it very early, there's been very little pain and discomfort. It's better to have it now than after the kid is born, since her breasts are only in casual daily use, rather than hard-core dietary use. But I do worry that this just means she's prone to more mastitis later.

But, it turns out, that is part of my job – to worry about absolutely everything that can go wrong so she does not have to. We both have our burdens – she has to grow and stretch and keep her armoured uterus safe. I have to imagine everything nasty that can happen. Let me tell you, it's not the funnest job, and if it weren't for the little one's reassuring kicks, it could get depressing. It has its plus sides, since I occasionally do know what to look for, like with the mastitis, when she gets it. I hope this prepares me sufficiently for the actual birth. Or perhaps I'll just be terrified of all the unlikely things I know which can go wrong, like I was the first time she had surgery. We'll just have to see.