Breast shells and inverted nipples

[GTbaby]

I'm currently 37 weeks and waiting for the arrival for ds2.

I failed to bf ds1 for many reasons. One being an inverted nipple.

I have done my research about the various hurdles I faced last time and tried to think of strategies around them this time.

So I read that using breast shells are good for inverted nipples and can be used in 3rd trimester to get you ready to feed at birth. Now I can't find the article again to get more information about how to use them, how often, how long etc.

So if anyone can give advice about this it would be great

Also any tips on how to prepare before the birth would be wonderful.

[GTbaby]

Bump

[GTbaby]

Any Sunday morning traffic?

[Heresalittlebaby123]

Hi there, hope this is helpful, it's obviously just my experience.

I have/ had 2 inverted nipples, one worse than the other. And the good news is I'm still feeding DD, 9 months old!

I was v worried about it pre birth, just could not see how it would work. I bought Medela nipple formers but really late on and hardly used them and tbh for me I don't think they made much difference.

Things I think would help:

Learn how to hand express and syringe/ spoon feed. This may be useful to you in the early days if your baby can't latch. Also get in some syringes for feeding. I even tried expressing colostrum in pregnancy to have ready but it was near impossible so not sure this is worth it- IME even after birth it's a 2 man job, I needed DH to help me collect the tiny drops as they came out!

Read about deep latch techniques - both biological nurturing and the 'flipple' technique helped me get DD latched onto my tricky nipples.

Find out in advance where to access help quickly- I had a few numbers to hand which definitely helped me when things started to go pear shaped in the first few days!

Have access to a pump, bottles etc. my more deeply inverted nipple was extraordinarily painful in the early days while the adhesions were being broken down by her sucking and also much more difficult to get any kind of latch on. Expressing on that side gave me a bit of a break from the pain while maintaining supply- plus giving DD an occasional
bottle of ebm helped me not panic too much when feeds weren't working too well and panic instead about nipple confusion!

It was really, really tough in the early days, not just because of my nipples as we had other issues too with mega-sleepy DD. But we got there and now I don't ever even think about her latch sadly she has also morphed into a non-sleeping nightmare

Anyway if you want to know more, pm me. I was desperate for success stories from people with inverted nipples before DD was born so I'd be happy to chat more.

Good luck!

[GTbaby]

Thank you so much for the pointers.

I have a pump already so that's a good thing. Used it for a while with ds1 but I dried up after 5/6weeks. And will source syringes... Are they the same as Medicean ones?

Tried hand expressing the other day but didn't really work. Guess its to early yet
Also tried some techniques I was told last time for drawing nipple out by hand. But works on better side only.

The nipple former seems to be similar to the shells. How late was to late to start using it in preg? I'm 37weeks...
Did it come with instructions? Like how often? How long?

Again thank you for your advice