I spoke to an amazing mother today. She has just had her 6th baby and I was asked to see her as she has fissures on her nipples. The fissures are from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock on both nipples (shaft of, not tip) and are 1mm deep (no, I didn't use a ruler) with pink tender looking skin at their base. They are not immediately obvious just looking at the nipple until the mother puts a little traction on the nipple when they open up. She said she has had them as long as she can remember and pregnancy or not being pregnant makes no difference to them. She has never been able to stand any touching of her breasts/nipples, sexual or otherwise. In her previous lactations they have caused her considerable pain (crying while feeding, breaking out in a sweat, dreading a feed, etc) and bleed and open up even more. However, she says she has made a decision to give each baby at least 3 months of breastfeeding before she weans. (I think she deserves a gold medal, and I'm awfully pleased I was never put to a test such as that) She gets very angry with mothers who wean at the first hint of a problem. Good positioning is, as always, the first step. She wasn't very interested in expressing (I mean hand expressing, which is probably the most common form of expressing done in Australia). She assures me that no matter how much pain she has to go through, she'll do it again for at least 3 months. What a pity nipple transplants aren't possible - she could use those perfect ones that some women possess and never want to put to their true use. Does anyone have any other bright ideas? Another passing thought - the midwives on the midwife list were at one stage talking about a type of super glue that was being used on perineums. Does anyone know anything about it? Denise, RN RM BNsing IBCLC being totally bedazzled with the variety (and number) of breastfeeding problems encountered since starting my job in Jan.