Clover leaf - I know that there have to be mothers who have truly defective
nipples but we must always give hope and that we breastfeed and not nipple
feed.  The baby moulds a 'teat' out of the breast, I know that the nipples
have enormous importance, nerve endings, eliciting rooting reflex etc, etc,
but on a very basic level they are just where the milk comes out.  My hopes
and best wishes to the mum
MAIN Trial findings - this began in 1989 and was published in March 1995 in
National Childbirth Trust New Generation digest.  MAIN is Multicentre
Randomised Controlled Trial of Alternative Treatments for Inverted and Non-
Protractile Nipples in Pregnancy.  Canadian maternity nurses joined in
collaboration making it the first international randomised controlled trial
organised by consumers of maternity care, midwives and maternity nurses.  The
study was funded in the UK by the Department of Health and in Ontario by the
Hospital for Sick  Children Foundation, Toronto.  It was found that there was
no evidence that advocating Hoffman's exercises or breast shells during
pregancy would be sure to increase the chances of a woman breastfeeding at 6
weeks after birth.  Its a great sobering read.  Inmo all these things are
instruments of torture, slow at that!  Helen Woodman, UK Breastfeeding
Counsellor.