Mary writes: More than one mother mentioned that hearing a nurse say,"It is not supposed to hurt" was unhelpful. These others had seen lactation consultants in the early days for latch assistance and infants were thriving and nipples showed minimal signs of damage,if any. I had been schooled in the theory that no nipple pain is ever normal. Mary and all, I've heard this too. Although I agree that when a baby breastfeeds, it should not be an overall painful experience, I do think that when the inflammatory aspect of breasts revving up in Lactogenesis 2 is happening, there can be tenderness, and a good deal of it, for a few days. Certainly I know my nipples hurt, from hormonal shifts that happen monthly, and I have no damage and haven't had a baby breastfeeding there for about 15 years. Couple that with damage that may have already happened, overfull fluid-stretched tissues, and/or lack of follow-up from others who say "breastfeeding always hurts, don't let anyone lie to you and say it doesn't" ( from other nurses, HCPs, friends and/or family) and you have some very angry, confused moms. When moms are in that phase, I tell them they are in the "days of breast tenderness", so they know there should be a change within a short amount of time, and/ or we need to look further. And as others said, mothers may be in a different hormonal state, or have different pain responses these days if they live where their birth has been heavily pharmacologically managed with little patience for mom's natural responses to the work of birth to manifest.... just some thoughts... Peace, Judy Judy LeVan Fram, PT, IBCLC, LLLL Brooklyn, NY, USA [log in to unmask] *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome