Maternal breast engorgement is a common problem encountered by women in the postpartum period. There is a paucity of randomized controlled trials about the effects of herbal compresses for breast engorgement. A randomized controlled trial published in Breastfeeding Medicine explored the effects of herbal compresses for maternal breast engorgement.

Mothers who had breast engorgement were randomly allocated to herbal or hot compress treatments. Breast engorgement pain scores were evaluated with the help of visual analog scales pre- and post-treatment. The pain reduction scales were analyzed and compared for the herbal compress treatments and the hot compress treatments. The adverse effects of each treatment were recorded and collected after 24 hours from treatments.

Data from 500 mothers with breast engorgement were available – 250 each from the herbal and the hot compress groups. The baseline characteristics of both groups were similar except for baseline breast engorgement pain score (higher for herbal compress group as compared to hot compress group). Statistically significant mean differences of breast engorgement pain were noted before and after treatment between the herbal and hot compress groups. No serious complications were noted after treatment with herbal compresses.

Among mothers who had breast engorgement in the postpartum period, herbal compresses had a role in decreasing breast engorgement pain. Pain reduction was found to be greater with herbal compresses than with hot compresses.