Pain is indeed very subjective. However, just as I can't judge a woman's
experience of labor pains, I can't judge her experience of nipple pain.
It always has seemed unfair to me that we keep expecting patients to
keep up with the shifts in attitudes of health professionals. When I
worked in a military OB/Gyn clinic in the early 70's, a young husband
who wanted to be in with his wife for her prenatal visits was the talk
of the clinic - ooh, what a sick thing to do!!! At the time, fathers
were not allowed in labor rooms either. Not a single mother breastfed
and they all slept through the night while we fed the babies in the
nurseries. Then all of a sudden, within 10 years, our outlook changed
and we expected families to jump to a new tune to which many health care
professionals were extremely ambivalent themselves.

So if a new mother complains of pain, why compare it to labor pain or
pain in another country or determine that a c/o pain at a "7" cannot be
true if someone is chatting on the phone. Different people tolerate pain
differently. When I had strep PID I was misdiagnosed because I didn't
appear to be in severe pain. If anybody had asked, I would have told
them 7-8 but nobody asked. Not everyone shows pain in the same way.

When I was nursing, no one determined that I was in pain because there
was no need to ask. I just nursed successfully and no one questioned it.
But for three weeks, every time she latched on, every 1 1/2 to 2 hours,
it was as though there was ground glass in my nipple which was then
being ground in deeper and deeper until she was comfortably latched on.
I wouldn't say anything in the hospital because I was already being
chastised for nursing too much and too long i.e., on demand.  Two weeks
after I went home, I finally got lanolin for a tiny crack (no red
nipples, no bleeding, everything looked fine) and I had no more
discomfort for the remaining two years.

So maybe we should tell moms that sometimes nursing can be uncomfortable
- even somewhat painful - in the beginning but to be sure and let us
know so that we can work on alleviating any discomfort or pain as soon
as possible to keep breastfeeding the richly rewarding experience it can be.

Joan Edelstein

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