Kathy Sharpe asked about a mom with "a dark discharge from her nipples.
She saw several doctors and had ''hundreds of tests".  Nothing was found
to be abnormal. She is now 17 weeks pregnant again. The discharge has
started again-first from one nipple and now both.  She was told she
shouldn't nurse until they find out what that discharge is.  I suggested
she ask her doctor to test it and that nursing should not be ruled out
at this point."

When I was a hospital nurse/LC I saw a mom who expressed brown liquid
from both breasts in the first day after delivery. This was a surprise.
I was working with her on latch-on, teaching her to hand express to give
her sleepy baby a taste, and --ooops! there were these dark chocolate
colored drops. I had read that brown colostrum was within the normal
range, and so had her pediatrician, thank goodness, so she continued to
nurse and we alerted the nurses that, if the baby spat up, it might be
brown. Within a day or so, her milk was the normal color, and she went
on to nurse just fine.  A couple of years later she was back with her
second baby, and when we expressed on the first day--just to see what we
would find--there was that chocolate color again. We tested it for blood
with whatever bedside method we had at the time--is it called
Hemocult?--and it was negative. Same pediatrician--same treatment (just
keep on nursing). The mom was a gestational diabetic, but that was the
only unusual thing about her.

Chris Mulford, RN, IBCLC
LLL Leader Reserve
working for WIC in South Jersey (Eastern USA)
Co-coordinator, Women & Work Task Force, WABA

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