I cringed when I read the description of the woman's nipples being cut away and left in a dish while the surgeon was busy with other things! I would not expect this mother to be able to breastfeed because the nerve supply to her nipples was severed along with the ducts. Without an intact nerve link between the nipples and the brain, there is no means for the necessary hormonal release to happen. However, having said that, I'd still suggest she sees what will happen. Severed nerves and ducts may still have done a certain amount of healing (against all the "rules" of what may be reasonably expected!) - she will not know what her personal situation is until she tries it. More Australian breast surgeons in recent years have done breast surgery, especially reduction surgery, with a greater awareness of the importance of preserving as much physiological function as possible. After the more invasive, disruptive (physiologically speaking) forms of breast surgery, (especially reduction) one fairly good indicator of the competence of the nerve supply to the nipples is nipple sensitivity. Whatever healing of damaged nerves is going to happen will do so in 6-12 months after surgery. If a woman then has no sensation in her nipples at all, I see no reason to be optimistic about her breastfeeding prospects. Some women will tell you that they are aware that they have considerably less nipple sensation than before, and the luckiest ones will say that there is just as much sensation in their nipples as before. (Then the limiting factors will be duct damage and the amount of milk secretory tissue removed from the breasts.) Robyn Noble (and Anne Bovey), Brisbane, Australia