Philippa and others:

The Nipple Ease does come from Australia - it was developed by a midwife in
Perth, Western Australia, and is quite commonly used here. It is basically
a smaller version of breast shells, bought singly and it comes with a
disposable breast pad "donut" to place between the plastic and the breast.
It is much cheaper than breast shells - I guess it's a replacement for the
plastic tea strainer, minus handle, that used to be recommended by
midwives. It is a little dome of plastic mesh (very open type mesh,
non-collapsable). It sits flat on the table, so potentially could dig into
the breast about where the sinuses would be. I do not recommemd it to
mothers, but find quite a few have had them from their days in hospital, so
I just make sure they are aware of potential problems with them. I don't
think anyone has bothered to get the NMAA Lactation Aids Working Group to
look at them because none of us like them very much, and wouldn't want to
get Members to test them. I'm amazed their fame has spread overseas!

Joy Anderson IBCLC, NMAA Breastfeeding Counsellor,
Perth, Western Australia
[log in to unmask]