Boy, isn't this a fascinating discussion? I got an email from Pat Lindsay in
Florida asking me to prepare a latch presentation for a conf. she's hosting
next Spring. Diane Wiessinger and I have talked about asking to convene a
panel discussion on the vocabularly of latch at the ILCA conf. Maybe it's
really time to move on this, as we've got a bunch of people really thinking
about these issues for the first time in years. I think that we've all sort
of gotten complacent about the "basics" and many take the attitude this is
old stuff and all worked out. I think it is the MAIN thing, and not very
worked out in our minds at all. Some of the ways and words used to describe
the events of latch are so poorly thought out and expressed that who knows
what we are communicating -- especially in books! I think we prob. all make
the same corrections when we see babies in person.
I will have to go back to the article, but I think I was pretty much quoting
Smith on the nipple stretching deal. Jean Cotterman may have a point, but I
have also seen what Chris has seen about the ribbon of nipple. In fact, I
am currently trying to take basic measurements of nipple lengths and
diameters and to photograph what they look like at rest and in action (on
pumps). I don't know what for, but we don't really have good normative data
on variations between women.
I propose a millenium debate on this issue, with everyone really reading up
and talking about it with an eye toward proposing some unanimity on some of
the teaching vocab (such as removing/revising the typical written advice:
crook of the arm, tickling the lower lip, arm around the side of mother,
etc).
B.
Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSEd, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates, Austin, Texas
http://www.jump.net/~bwc/lactnews.html
----- Original Message -----
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Sent: Saturday, November 20, 1999 08:01 AM
Subject: Re: Shear forces, and Nipple-areolar complex
> Jean Cotterman, quoting Felicity Savage, wrote
>
> > "You can sometimes see the long, stretched
> > breast tissue for a moment when the baby stops sucking."
>
> Yesss!
> Some other author (I wish I remembered who) once described the breast as
> being pulled into a long, flat, ribbon shape inside the baby's mouth.
Years
> ago when I read that, it rang a bell for me, because I HAVE seen a breast
> changed into this long, flat ribbon shape---perhaps two or three times in
my
> entire nursing career (8 2/3 years). (I'm referring to my own career as a
> nursing mother, of course.) This could happen after a long, sleepy
nursing
> session if the baby let go suddenly, and I saw a flat pink shape that
looked
> like a wide rubber band scoot out of the baby's mouth and spring back into
> the button shape I was accustomed to seeing in the middle of my areola.
(I
> don't say "resume its *normal* shape" because whatever shape it assumed in
> the baby's mouth was of course a normal metamorphosis for a human nipple.)
>
> I only saw this with an experienced baby (I can't state exactly when it
might
> have happened, because the long, sleepy nursing part of the description
> refers to the mother's mental state as well as the baby's), probably a
> toddler. And I only saw it after a long nursing, so I assume the breast
was
> pretty well "wrung dry"---oooh, what an uncomfortable image, although I
don't
> mean it that way---let's say "stripped." So I never speculated too much
> about whether the nipple-areolar complex assumed this long flat ribbon
shape
> with every nursing, or only after the sinuses were empty and the nipple
> tissue was totally relaxed. And the fleeting glimpse I had of my anatomy,
> the few times I saw it at all, did not allow me to determine whether I was
> seeing a long flat ribbon made only of "nipple," or whether the base of it
> was composed of "areola." Remember, I was half-asleep.
>
> Anyway, having seen this long flat ribbon shape myself, ON myself, I've
never
> been troubled by the description Barbara quoted.
> < found that the nipple extends to 2-3 times resting length>
>
> Chris Mulford
> Swarthmore PA USA
> This IS a season for self-disclosure, isn't it!
>
>
>
>
>
>
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