Introduction: Breastfeeding is the best way of feeding babies because the milk is being constantly adapted to their needs. It also positively impacts the health of breastfeeding mothers. Even thou it is very natural, there might be complications, one of which is mastitis. It is an inflammatory disease of the breast which is very painful and negatively affects breastfeeding experience for mothers and their babies. Purpose of this diploma work is to determine what are personal hygiene practices of breastfeeding women and their experiences with mastitis. Methods: We conducted a cross sectional study, using a questionnaire. The sample consisted of 648 women with experience in breastfeeding, 187 of which had mastitis at least once. Results: Women with mastitis essentially make no difference in personal hygiene compared to women without mastitis. However, there are substantial differences considering breastfeeding. Mastitis was much more common among women who had a milk supply bigger than demand and cracked nipples. Women determined risk factors for mastitis onset the following: breast engorgement, having an oversupply of milk, exhaustion and stress. For most women, mastitis occurred in the first three months after birth. Most pieces of advice for the management of mastitis women found on the internet and in professional manuals. Their friends, patronage nurses, lactational consultants, nurses and midwives at the maternity hospital also provided them with plenty of helpful information. For mastitis management, they mostly used breast massage, warm compresses before a feeding and cold compresses after feeding. Discussion and conclusion: Mastitis is a relatively common inflammation of the breast with plenty of unpleasant symptoms. Because of that quick and proper treatment is vital and women in Slovenia have good knowledge of how to intervene. In our study, we didn't find substantional differences in personal hygiene practices between women with and without mastitis. Because of our study's limitations and lack of scientific literature on this topic, the correlation between hygiene and mastitis should be researched with a more rigid research design and additional research.
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