Early on, I do see some increase in edema with pumping, but I actually see the opposite - the
edematous, overfull breasts don't seem to give to the pump so the nipple/areola doesn't seem to
get sucked into the shaft of the breast shield.

I see lots of women whose elastic areolas and/or nipples continue to stretch out into the pump
who don't have edema.  This what seems to contribute to pump trauma among some women.

I have not yet seen a relationship with insufficient glandular tissue and this phenomenon, although
who knows?  Maybe the elasticicity of some tissue is due to a lack of glandular tissue that would
otherwise have made the breast a little more taut.  I am seeing several women right now, however,
who have those enormous elastic breasts who are copious oversuppliers and their nipples &
areolas seem to expand to the diameter of the opening in the breast shield.  These women seem
to have benefited from the new angled pump with several, rather than one, ridge.  It remains to be
seen whether my biased sample of three will be similar to an unbiased sample of many women.

I also have not noticed a relationship between the increase in elasticity of the nipple/areola tissue
inside the pump and an increase in supply.  I do see a relationship between initiation of pumping
in the first few days and elasticity of the nipple/areola tissue in the pump.  So perhaps the
relationship between supply and elasticity of the nipple/areola tissue has more to do with length
of pumping?  Again, without figuring out how to study this, it is only our individual observations
which may be biased.


Best, Susan Burger

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