The Truth About Breastfeeding

Although I’ve criticized the health service for their, ‘breastfeeding is easy as long as you do it right’ line (a criticism that I stand by), the health visitors and midwives I have spoken to have generally been sympathetic. They have also been willing to deviate from the official advice when it’s obvious that it isn’t working.

Faced with my mutilated nipples, two midwives suggested nipple shields.  A shield is a silicon or rubber teat that you hold over the nipple to protect it during a feed. It is shaped like a large nipple, with holes in the end for the milk to come through. Apparently, they can affect milk supply, so do not have NHS approval, although I have since discovered that this recommendation may be rather out of date (see the nipple shields research post). I didn’t have any luck with shields (C looked at me as if I were mad – she was going to put one of those in her mouth?!) but I have spoken to many women who found them useful.

Breast shells, on the other hand, did prove to be a hit. In contrast to shields, you use shells in between feeds, to protect sore nipples or draw flat ones out (they apply a small amount of suction). They consist of a silicon disk with a hole in the middle for your nipple, topped off with a half a clear plastic tennis ball that acts as a protective bubble around your nipple and stops the fabric of your clothes coming into contact with it. The plastic bit also has holes in, to allow air to circulate. The instructions said to always make sure these were facing upwards, an instruction that I initially failed to heed. What difference would the direction of the holes make? I discovered the answer to this when I noticed a substantial wet patch on my t-shirt. A significant amount of milk can collect in them if you have them on for any period of time, and this milk will naturally leak out of any holes it finds. If you can motivate yourself to sterilize the shells regularly, you can store this milk for later use, but it wasn’t really a priority for me at that point. In the end, I put a breast pad in each shell to soak up any rogue milk (making sure the holes pointed upwards, of course.) Although this will have hindered the air flow a little, the shells still proved very effective in preventing discomfort, and seemed to allow my nipples to heal more easily. I say ‘seemed’ because the effect may have been psychological – when using the shell, my nipple looked less mangled, and I thus assumed it was improving.

I should probably mention, however, that I didn’t exactly use the shells as specified on the box. The instructions state that you shouldn’t use them for more than a couple of hours at a time, as they can cause blocked ducts. I weighed up the potential for blocked ducts against the possibility of my nipples healing a bit faster, and decided the chance of the latter made it reasonable to risk the former. This meant, in practice, that I ended up using them all the time, including at night. Fortunately I didn’t suffer any blocked ducts, although I did end up stretching a rather expensive Elle McPherson nursing bra (and looking like Madonna during her pointy cone bra period unless I dressed very carefully).  To date, there has been very little clinical research investigating the effectiveness (or not) of breast shells (see breast shells: preserving your modesty), but they seemed to help me get through a difficult time. If you want to take the pressure off your nipples – and are willing to risk increasing it on your milk ducts – they may be worth a try.