Breast warmers are popularly considered near-essential accessories here in
the frozen North.  In Norway we are more down-homey and women tend to use
wool breast pads.  They are natural wool with lanolin, and stay warm even
when wet.  They can also be reservoirs of yeast and bacteria, though there
has been little work done to examine the effects on mothers, and the one
very small study that was done, seemed to find less mastitis in women giving
birth in a hospital where the pads were routinely distributed to all
mothers, than the national average.  There are many sources of bias in this
study so no solid conclusions may be drawn.

Mothers seem to like using them, though; they are told (by their friends,
mothers and aunts) it is very important to keep their breasts warm, that
getting a chill, as from a draft across their breasts, can cause mastitis,
and even to wear mittens (on hands, not on breasts) when getting food out of
the deep freezer.  Some women even wear breast warmers at night.  People
used to knit them themselves but nowadays they are mostly purchased, along
with all sorts of other gidgies and gadgies for living with infants that we
probably can do without.

I don't know what mothers are told in Sweden about warmth and cold but I
suspect it is quite similar.  In Sweden there is a company that markets
breast warmers made of a synthetic material called Flectalon, I believe, and
they look very space-age, and come in all kinds of fun patterns, like fake
leopard fur.  Norwegian mothers still prefer wool, but that may be domestic
protectionism in action.  We have plenty of herds of sheep and do produce
wool.  I don't think anyone is keeping herds of Flects here.
IMO the wool breast pads can be magic feathers, and harmless at that.  If a
problem develops, I would take a look at the pad as part of my assessment,
and we advise against using them if there is thrush.  I'd guess the
Flectalon ones can be just as magic, and I think they may stand up to higher
washing temperatures than wool.  Some people itch from wool, too.  Normally
women simply rinse the wool ones til the water comes clean, and they can
re-apply lanolin to the pads every now and then as the natural lanolin is
depleted from use.  The same procedure is followed for care of wool soakers,
which the one woman in a thousand who uses cloth diapers will also probably
be using.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway
former user of cloth diapers and wool soakers in a disposable diaper culture
(I only stopped because my children are out of diapers)

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