Here's some very good stats for those interested.  King George V is a very
large and busy maternity hospital in Sydney Australia.  They have a
Lactation Team which sees breastfeeding problems.  Please note that these
statistics apply ONLY to women referred to the team with problems - NOT to
all women who delivered at the hospital.

1218 women (inpatients) were referred to the team with breastfeeding problems
a nipple shield was considered necessary for 44 women (3.6%)
quote "once the milk was in"
<snip> talks about appropriate instruction and followup

7 mothers were followed up elsewhere - 37 returned to the team.

Av age at outpatient visit:  11 days

Reasons for nipple shield use:
1 - inverted nipples
7 - sore nipples
7 - in-coordinate suck
22 - difficult to latch

Weight at followup (note: all these women were very well taught and had
several breastfeeds observed by experienced LCs prior to discharge)

53% gained weight (25 -325g)
25% lost weight (20 - 190g)
22% remained unchanged
(Sorry US-ers, to convert to ounces divide by 30)

All babies were tried without the shield from the commencement of the feed
at the follow-up visit.

Cessation of nipple shield:
5.4% prior to visit
59.2% from 1st visit
19% within 1st week of visit
11% within 2nd week of visit
5.4% continued to use the shield

I think those stats speak volumes.

Denise
Brisbane, Australia

****************************************************
Denise Fisher, BN, RM, IBCLC
BreastEd Online Lactation Studies Course
http://www.breasted.com.au
mailto:[log in to unmask]
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