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bact eriur ia r ates often r-e por-t.ed on t he continent are high
(79-88 ) •
Breast infections:
Mastiti s a nd its sequelae of breast a bs cess are us ua l ly
late pos tpa rtum infectious comp l ications. The i ncidence r a t e
recorded in this s tudy probably t ells o nly a part of the story
of the actual occurrence o f disease i n t he puerperium. I t is
not surprising , the r e f o r e , t hat the r a t e of 1. J% no t e d hore is
3 less t han tho rates reported i n weste r n studies i n which
SUbjects were followed up for longer periods rang i ng up to o ne
year or mor e ( 106,107] . To obtain a more accurate picture of
t he true occur rence of puerperal mastitis further studies wi th
l ong e r follow up periods are ne ed ed . The re su l t s of t his stUdy
should be v iew ed more as pz-ovLdInq ev i de nc e that aas'tLt i s is
not v e r y rare in thi s population.
About one i n eve ry t e n b re ast feeding mothers in the e t.udy
h ad a n inflammatory n ipple c ond i t i on which caused distress
during i nfant f eeding. These mothers obviously needed s ome
advice and suppor-: in t he management of these n i pple problem s .
Bec au se i n t h e pa thoge nesis of mastitis, n i pple i nfla r,lInatory
disord ers a r e be l i eve d t o be the p r e d i s pos i ng ca use, one
wonders what proportion o f these women will develope mastitis
l ate r on i n the pue r perium.