As time goes by, while the new health professionals are getting better trained, the old ones are being recycled and the mothers are making claims or "thanks" so that those who do not know, know that they do not know, continue to hear myths related to the breastfeeding, not only in the consultations of health professionals, but also at home, in the street and wherever there is a pregnant woman or who has recently given birth with problems and doubts.
One of those myths is that suffered by many women whose nipple, when stimulated, instead of going outside, enters inside. Come on, what is commonly known as inverted nipple. The myth of which I speak is that which says that "If you have the inverted nipple you will not be able to breastfeed unless you prepare it before or use a teat cup".
Preparing the nipple for when the baby is born
Now it is no longer done, or usually not done, that I cannot put my hand in the fire for anyone, but in the past one could get to do an exploration of the woman's chest to see if she was going to be able to breastfeed. Something like seeing that the nipples were normal to determine whether the baby could drink breast milk or not, and in the case of seeing that they were flat or inverted, suggest prepare them for when the baby was born. With the use of some exercises, the woman was told that she would get her nipples ready for the day her baby wanted to breastfeed.
The problem is that studies were conducted to assess the effectiveness of these exercises and it was concluded that they didn't help much and that, more than benefits, they could even be detrimental, because by telling a woman that her breasts were "bad" and that she had to "repair" them confidence in their chances of breastfeeding diminished a lot and then, at birth, the probability of failure with breastfeeding was much higher.
In addition, until the eighth month of pregnancy, when the breast grows and changes shape, many nipples that seemed to be difficult to breastfeed are perfectly everted. In any case, it doesn't matter: the baby does not breast the nipple.
Does the baby not breast nipple?
No, and many people still believe that it is so. But if that were the case, the world would be full of nursing mothers crying in each shot, cracking cracks that never disappear. The babies breast breast. They open the mouth, catch it, make it windy and put the nipple inside their mouth and, depending on the size, the whole areola or part of it, and part of the chest. Come on, breast of all this, not just the nipple. By this I mean that the type of nipple that a mother has does not determine the success she will have when she is going to breastfeed her baby.
"Well, they gave me teat cups"
Often happens. The baby is caught in the first shots. There is pain, discomfort and it seems that the baby does not grip too well because you have the inverted nipple. Already, I know that I just said that the nipple does not determine success or failure, but it is true that an inverted nipple can make breastfeeding difficult at first. The nipple is not really necessary for a child to suck, but it is very helpful (if it were not helpful it probably would not be there). The child serves as a guide, it is the tip of the chest that when stimulated becomes a little harder and more everted and serves the baby to know that it is right there where it has to be taken. Then it happens, when a woman has the inverted nipple, that the baby loses that guidance and then that mother needs more help and patience.
There are two options, give the woman a few nipples, so that she has that guide we are talking about, or help her get an optimal grip with an inverted nipple that does not help the baby much help. What is the correct option ? Well, the second, although most women receive the first.
"Do you have the inverted nipple? Well, take some nipples. Hala, you already have a nipple!" And ready, do not complain about the fact that the child does not take to the chest that now you have no excuse: now you have a nipple that serves the guide child. The problem is that if the child has a bad grip, if he has a wrong position when breastfeeding, you can already put on teat cups and whatever you want, that that will not go well. The first thing is to evaluate the grip, see how the baby sucks, help him to take it, try to make him breast without the guide, have a lot of patience with him and with the mother (and that the mother has it with the baby) and try to get shots Without natural or artificial guide.
If it is not achieved, you can try with a teat cup. How many lactations have been saved thanks to them, and how many lactations will have been damaged when a mother gets used to them, the baby sucks perfectly, gains weight and someone says "but it is better that you take them off", at which point everything starts fail again. However, The teat cups are, should be, the last resort, because just as they can help, they can end up spoiling a breastfeeding, if the baby's position has not been corrected before.
Sometimes they are women and babies with longer lactations
Carlos González explains in his book "A gift for a lifetime" that many times women with inverted nipples, those for whose breasts nobody would give a hard and seem destined not to breastfeed unless the nipples are prepared before giving birth or use teat cups, shells and I don't know what else gadgets, They are the ones with longer and more successful breastfeeding.
It seems a contradiction, but if we just said that they are mothers who may need help and a lot of patience, precisely with help and a lot of patience they can achieve such a solid grip, so perfect from the baby to the breast, that they can become the ones who are breastfeeding. more efficient But beware, this happens if a mother who has problems, who sees that the thing is not going well, goes to a breastfeeding support group or to a professional who has the time and knowledge required to help her. If the solution is to tell him to buy some teat cups without observing the shot and write on paper the envelopes of I don't know what commercial product to have enough milk, in a few days or weeks you will be taking artificial milk bottle, which is the first advice that he had surely received from a relative: "Baby, don't complicate your life, if it bothers you, you give bottles and go ... if in all, the milks now are very good". What an eye, I do not say that they are not, but, nobody thinks that this woman perhaps wanted to breastfeed for a long time? That is not a matter of complication or not, but that each woman can do what she wants to do.
Photos | Thinkstock
In Babies and more | How to breastfeed with flat or inverted nipples, Breastfeeding with flat nipples is possible, Everything you need to know to have a happy breastfeeding
