Just have to respond to this thread with a personal experience.  I had my
firstborn in 1980, and as a gift, my father bought an old, beat up rocking
chair and refinished it for me, as I love antiques.  It was old and kind of
funky, and I rocked my babies and nursed in it.  I had sore and bleeding
nipples, and as an L&D nurse, was about as "expert" as they came on BF
issues.  There were no LC's to call!  But as I was committed to mother's
milk, I nursed them through the pain, the blood tinged spit up milk, and toe
curling nights in that beloved rocker.  Last year, I dug this rocker out, as
I had a place for it.  I was caring for a friend's crying breastfed baby
(while she was at the store) and I decided to go back to that rocker.  I
held her tightly and closely in a cradle position, and rocked her gently to
sleep.  BUT, to my ASTONISHMENT, I noticed that the arms were so LOW that my
babies had to be pulling my nipple down, putting all sorts of traction and
negative pressure on them!  It is a wonder my nipples were ever able to
heal!

We need to remember that as LC's, we do so much every day without thinking
about it, that I think we surely MUST have a lesser occurance of sore
nipples than we did 20 years ago.  Oh, how I would have loved to have one of
you wise women come do a home visit for me, you would have figured it out in
a blink of an eye!  Warmly, Linda

Linda J. Tandy, MSN, RN, CCM, IBCLC
Cedar Rapids, Iowa

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