Katherine said, about a LLL friend,
************************************************************************
she generally believed that
nursing should not hurt if baby is latching on properly, but that there
would be still be a subset of women who's babies were latching properly
....who did experience pain or discomfort in the initial days.
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An observation I have made over the years is that women whose areola doesn't
darken appreciably during the pregnancy, who have a tendency to burn, rather
than tan, and who may have extremely tender nipples during pregnancy, their
periods, or lovemaking -- generally speaking, and all other things taken into
consideration (good latch, appropriate suck, etc) have more of a problem
with sore nipples in the early days than those women who have none of the above.
I personally do not believe that the areola darkens in order to provide a
"bulls-eye" for the baby to find the nipple. I believe it darkens (more
melanin) in order to prepare the nipples for breastfeeding. Melanin can toughen
the skin -- one of the reasons that frequent tanning leads to "leathery" skin
-- and I think this is what is happening in preparation for breastfeeding.
While I haven't done a formalized study on this, I do ask women about the
breast changes and if they can quantify *how much* darker the areola got. Most
of them can say something like, "a little darker pink, or a little bit
brown, or dark brown."
For most of these women, if they can tough it out the first few days, the
pain goes away and they are fine. But regardless of improvement of latch, they
all seem to experience pain.
Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC (GranJan of the Purple Sling and Victorian
complexion)
Wheaton IL
www.lactationeducationconsultants.com
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