Laurie writes: <1. I can't tell you the number of moms who present for me to check and suggest measures to improve their inverted nipples, who in fact have normal breast/nipples. Often the nipples are actually somewhat "short" or "flat" but no intervention is needed, IMO. How many moms do you all really see with really pronounced EVERTED nipples? I truly see many many more short flattish ones. Is it because many moms are a tad or more overweight and many breasts very large and these seem to go with the "short" nipples? Just musing. What I am trying to say to Jane is, the mom really *may not* have inverted nipples.> I happened upon a valuable reference resource for me at the Lactation Institute display booth at ILCA. There was just one copy available at the conference, though it can be purchased through the Lactation Institute. I was lucky enough to purchase it and get the author's autograph. It was "Human Nipples: Function and Anatomical Variations in Relationship to Breastfeeding", the master's thesis of Yaffa Stark. I am particularly glad to have the benefit of her excellent literature review. It may contain one possible answer about the "overdiagnosis" of inverted nipples, a term which I see too loosely used for meaningful communication and guidance and very often, frightening mothers unnecessarily. She composed a table to compare the different terminology to describe nipple types, using four different sources. So one of the biggest barriers to communication is that there is little agreement among HCP's (or anyone else, for that matter)about the definition of "inverted". I myself favor the use of the word "retracting" to describe the functional response to areolar compression by the "pulling in" of a nipple which may even appear everted or flat in its unstimulated state. And I find it far more important to identify where the milk sinuses lie, and show the mother where the baby's compression efforts need to be applied. Jean ************* K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC Dayton, Ohio ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagh. *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html