Ex-EastEnders star Melissa Suffield had 'meltdown' after breastfeeding injury

Melissa Suffield had an "absolute meltdown" after suffering a breastfeeding injury.

The former \'EastEnders\' actress was diagnosed with mastitis - a condition which makes the breast feel red, hot and painful and is most common in breastfeeding women - just three weeks after giving birth to her son River in March.

Speaking to Natural Birthing Company founder Jane Mason in a live chat, she said: "Everyone was like, \'It\'s the most amazing feeling\' and I was like, \'This is the worst feeling. This is horrible\'.

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"It was really high and not in a place where I could knead it out. That turned into mastitis which was my first and really only mum absolute meltdown.

"I was on the sofa in tears for about three hours saying, \'This is the worst pain ever.\' I didn\'t want to take the antibiotics I\'d been prescribed because I was worried about forcing River to have it."

The 27-year-old star looked into various ways to solve the issue and ease the pain, including putting breast milk on her nipples.

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She added: "I put breast pads in the bra. But when I woke up the next day and peeled them off, basically all the skin came away.

"So I was like, \'I\'m done to pumping\'. So I wore nipple shells instead of the pads. I wore them for about eight weeks and that was literally how long it took."

The soap star - who played Lucy Beale on \'EastEnders\' from 2004 to 2010 - welcomed baby River with her fiance Robert Brendan back in March.

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Announcing the news on Instagram at the time, she said: "What a perfect little human we appear to have made... We could not be more obsessed with you. (sic)"