For Breast Engorgement

1. Encourage infant to suck more frequently to help relieve the milk congestion and the heaviness you may feel from engorgement.
2. Apply a warm compress to the breast or take a warm shower before nursing to help relax the tissue and relax the discomfort from your tender breasts.
3. Make sure you wear a nursing bra that provides enough support, so your breasts don’t feel like they’re so heavy. Wired bras may be uncomfortable, so look for one that fits right without the need of wires.
4. Gently massage your breasts before feeding to help facilitate the milk and soften the tissue. This will also help your baby to suckle more easily.
5. Pump any excess milk that you still feel is causing the heaviness after your baby is finished feeding.

The lactation consultants at Stanford, recommend cool cabbage leaf compresses between nursings as part of their engorgement solution. Use green cabbage leaves. Crush them with a rolling pin if the leaves don’t fit well to the shape of your breasts. Or cut off the tops of the leaf veins – whatever gives you the best fit. The leaves can stay on for about 20 minutes, two or three times a day, perhaps with a cold compress over them. Some suggest putting them on after every feed, and leaving them on until the cabbage wilts, but others are concerned that this will reduce the milk supply.
During weaning, they can be left on continuously. One study, published in the June 1993 Birth, found that women whose engorgement was treated with cabbage leaves experienced greater relief and were more likely to continue nursing (76 percent versus 58 percent). Women who used the cabbage leaves preventatively, while their milk was first coming in, tended to report less engorgement. 

A later study in the March 1995 Journal of Human Lactation, found that chilled gelpaks and chilled cabbage leaves both result in a significant drop in engorgement pain. Although both worked equally well, the majority of women studied preferred the cabbage leaves. In the September 1995 issue of the same journal, researchers reported that when women had chilled cabbage leaves on one breast and room temperature cabbage leaves on the other, the relief of engorgement was significant, and was the same on both sides; use whatever temperature is more comfortable for you.