Brenda, You wrote: < She claims to be having pretty intense pain on the sides of her breasts and in her nipples. She says that sometimes the pain is so bad that it feels like a needle is going through her nipples. < I thought this might be related to skin stretchening, but would like to know if any of you other LCs have heard of this complaint prenatally before, and if you have another suggestion for what the problem might be.> Nipples and breast pain have occupied a lot of my thinking over the years. Let me take a guess. It sounds to me as if your assessment is at least partially right. However, rather than skin stretching alone, it seems to me that the pathway of the pain she describes points to a duct, perhaps associated with scar tissue impinging on a nerve at some point. If I am reading your post correctly, this is bilateral. I would be interested in knowing her cup size. I would think a somewhat pendulous (C or above) breast might tug more if there were scar tissue being disturbed by the stretching attending the growth of new glandular tissue. I have come across several references mentioning a condition called duct ectasia which involves tissue changes that can be caused by injury or infection. I would think injury might be more apt to be unilateral, but this is only supposition on my part. I am imagining that if there were scarring involving traction on the longitudinal myoepithelial cells that surround a duct wall, occasional MER's experienced during pregnancy might cause some pain along the path of that duct. Have her cover her nipples with a thick sleep bra or 2 tee shirts etc. at bedtime to lessen the chance that MER might be stimulated by friction from bedclothes when she turns over. Suggest that she expose her breasts for 5 minutes or more of warm water with massage at bath time, preferably upward and inward toward the axilla and chest wall, perhaps with the same technique as a standard monthly breast exam. I think this assists in the clearance of lymph from the breast tissues which might be slowed somewhat by gravity in pendulous breasts. I believe she could gain reassurance about the actual breastfeeding experience by testing this suggestion for the nipple area itself at times other than the bath. Suggest that she fold a clean washcloth in quarters, and saturate it with the hottest water she can stand on the inside of her wrist, to make sure she doesn't burn herself. Hold it over the nipple and areola for 3 minutes. This seems to elevate the pain threshhold. I have found it especially comforting for undamaged but painful nipples in the first days of nursing when the baby is learning to latch, but I bet it would bring relief even now. I am curious to see what others might suggest and how this workd with this mother. K. Jean Cotterman RNC IBCLC Dayton, Ohio USA ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html