I hear from women all the time that they have been told by a nurse that
they have problem nipples and that's why the baby won't latch on.  It is
a very, very common problem in my hospital (thus the need for me to make
the Evert-it)..Combine flat/retracting nipples with a sleepy baby and
you have no intake for a baby for 24-48 hrs. unless you intervene. (Why
I am so grateful for cup and spoon feeding as a possibility!) Maybe my
facility has an abnormally high rate of births with interventions
that wipe mothers out and make their babes like dishrags but I think
not.  I've talked to so many other nurses/LCs in the U.S. with the same
problems.  I wish it wasnt so!  If everyone would treat newborn infants
with the respect and care they deserve, instead of repeatedly trying to
jam them into the breast...and what about the exhausted mother?!  Make
the mother comfortable, dim the lights, leave the baby skin-to-skin and
come back every hour or so to see if he can gently be coaxed on to the
breast.  At some point maybe a cup feed will be needed..or a few
spoonfuls of expressed colostrum (Kay Hoover's brilliant idea!).  Oh,
the frustrations of dealing with hospital practices and routines!
Persevering nevertheless...Edie Armstrong BSN, IBCLC, Fairfax, Va.