Funny....I hadn't come across shells in quite a few years, until
recently, when I heard from two mothers who'd been advised by their
midwife to wear them to cope with leaking between feeds.

Now, shells were not designed for leaking. I mean, if you had to
design something to catch breastmilk between feeds, you'd want
something more efficient than a breast shell, wouldn't you?

They were originally designed to evert inverted nipples, and the MAIN
trial found they were no better at helping women bf than doing
nothing; since then they have fallen out of favour in the UK at
least...and I suspect these two recent cases are freakish throwbacks.

I can't see anything to justify their use, myself. They certainly
encourage leaking, by drawing the nipple out, and presumably (someone
help me with my Physics, here...) creating a sort of vacuum which
allows the milk to seep out, sometimes in vast quantities. I have
known women who deliberately used this feature, and caught their milk
from one side while they fed on the other, for later use as EBM.

The mothers who contacted me recently got along much better without
the shells. They leaked a lot less, and were able to stop unwanted
flow with the old trick of using the heel of the hand against the
breast.

Chayn, your situation seems hard if you have been 'ordered' to get
shells, and you are the only person who seems to understand there are
other options. These mothers who want to wear them....well, they need
to know the facts before making that choice. The babies need to feed
in the night, and the mothers need to feed them....that's how bf
works. What more can be said???? : (

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

             ***********************************************
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