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Breastfeeding with flat or inverted nipples. Ask our breastfeeding experts Get personal advice from our lactation consultants. Flat nipples With flat nipples, there is no need to do anything. Inverted nipples If you have inverted nipples, you will need more help and support. Although opinions and experiences vary, many women have found treatments for inverted or flat nipples helpful and many breastfeeding experts continue to recommend them.
Breastfeeding experts disagree on whether pregnant women should be screened for flat or inverted nipples and whether treatments to draw out the nipple should be routinely recommended.
Although treating flat and inverted nipples during pregnancy is debated, if your newborn is having difficulty latching on to a flat or inverted nipple you may find some or all of the following helpful.
If the soreness is severe, or continues past the initial two weeks, call your local LLL Leader for assistance. Moisture Becoming Trapped as Nipple Inverts After Feeding If your nipple retracts after feedings, that skin may remain moist, leading to chapping of the skin. After feeding, pat your nipples dry and apply an emollient safe for breastfeeding.
You may also want to wear breast shells or other device to keep your nipple out between feedings so the skin can dry. When Nipple Soreness is Prolonged Rarely, a mother may experience persistent sore nipples for a longer period of time because instead of stretching, the adhesions remain tight. This can create a stress point which may lead to cracks or blisters.
When a mother has deeply-embedded nipple, rather than compressing the milk ducts, the baby compresses the buried nipple instead. Because baby is unable to get the nipple correctly positioned in his mouth, he will not receive much milk for his efforts, and nursing will be painful for the mother.
Over time, this usually works to break the adhesions that are holding the nipple in. If one breast is easier for baby to grasp and he nurses well from that breast, you can continue to feed on that side. You can pump the breast with the deeply inverted nipple until the adhesions loosen and the nipple is drawn out. Your baby will get all the milk he needs from one breast as long as he is allowed unlimited and unrestricted time at the breast. If both nipples are deeply inverted, you can pump both breasts simultaneously for minutes 8 or more times in 24 hours.
You can feed your baby with an alternative feeding device until he is able to latch on effectively and comfortably. How long you will need to pump in order to draw out your nipples depends upon the strength of the adhesions and the degree of inversion. For some mothers, one pumping is enough to completely draw out the nipple. If the nipple continues to deeply invert, you may need to continue pumping. When your nipple stays out after pumping, the mother can resume breastfeeding immediately.
On rare occasions you may continue to feel some discomfort even after your nipple has been drawn out. The practice and the patience are up to you, but we can help with the assistance part!
Rather than protruding outward the way nipples usually do, inverted nipples either lie flat against the areola or turn inward into the areola. This may be most noticeable when pressure is applied to the areola. The degree of flatness or inversion varies a lot, and not just from person to person—an individual may have two fully inverted nipples, one inverted nipple and one typical nipple, or one or more nipples that are only partially inverted.
Many women are born with inverted nipples. It doesn't hurt or cause any specific problems. Sometimes pregnancy itself is the cause for this change, but rarely, an inverted nipple can be a sign of something more serious, like breast cancer.
Inverted nipples can also appear after breast surgery, breast trauma, during menopause, during or after mastitis , or even after breastfeeding if you experienced any scarring of your milk ducts. Maybe, or maybe not! It depends on how inverted your nipple is—nipples that are only slightly inverted may begin protruding more over time, especially as you go through the typical life cycle of female reproductive changes i. Physical changes, like changes in temperature or sexual arousal, may also temporarily affect the appearance of your inverted nipple or nipples.
You may want to, though, if you have strong feelings about the appearance of your inverted nipple or are worried about your ability to breastfeed in the future. You can also opt for plastic surgery. There are surgical correction procedures as well as cosmetic injections which can turn your nipple outward. In the past, surgery used to involve severing the milk ducts behind the nipple, meaning a woman could no longer breastfeed, but modern procedures preserve the milk ducts, instead stretching out the connective tissue so the nipples can protrude.
Nipple shields are designed to help mums breastfeed babies with latch-on difficulties by providing a larger, firmer target for baby to attach and maintain attachment during the feed. Some mums find they only need to use the nipple shield for a short term as over time the frequent feeds help draw out their nipple, while other mums may need to use a nipple shield for longer. Finally, remember to seek ongoing support from a breastfeeding specialist, especially in the first few weeks, until you are feeling confident with breastfeeding and you know your milk supply is good and baby is gaining weight well.
Do you know anyone who has had concerns about breastfeeding with inverted nipples? For more tips and helpful advice follow us on our Medela Australia Facebook. Discover our new range of pacifiers — made in Switzerland.
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