Pierced Nipples and Breastfeeding

[Shirt_Ninja_13]

Does anyone know if getting your nipples pierced would somehow impede or otherwise make it a bad idea for a woman to breastfeed, later in life? A friend of mine is considering doing this, but noted this as a factor in the decision, and I figured I should come to the people who could give me a reliable answer on the subject.

Thankee!
bamf

[capnfutile]

@Shirt Ninja 13

Does anyone know if getting your nipples pierced would somehow impede or otherwise make it a bad idea for a woman to breastfeed, later in life?

I assume you’ve already tried this:
http://www.google.com/search?q=nipple+pierce+breast+feed

Short answer, probably not. I would strongly suggest a professional studio that looks clean. An infection here could definitely screw things up. Do one at a time.

capn
(former sporter of pierced nipple, but never in any danger of breastfeeding)

[Emony_Dax]

According to kellymom.com (a fariyl well-respected source of info for breastfeeding moms), it should be okay. Scroll about halfway down the page for several short Q&A’s about it.

[Humanist]

My mother is head of lactation at one of our local hospitals. She’s worked with several women with pierced nipples and all of them that put effort into breastfeeding were able to (just like any other motherly thing, it takes at least a bit of work). The only issue is, as some mentioned here, infection, which is an issue with any piercing.

Breast reduction surgery, now, is a whole different animal that often causes problems. But nipple piercing, if your friend is careful about infection, should not cause a problem.

[Kimstu]

This was one of the questions that the Master published in his very first book, encountered nearly 20 years ago when the naive young Cecil had obviously had less exposure to the piercing phenomenon than anybody’s got nowadays:

I want to get my nipples pierced. Are there health risks? Plus: Sperm trees of Los Angeles (20-Sep-1985)

@Cecil

The medical authorities I have spoken with on the subject of nipple piercing advise me that, to put it bluntly, you are out of your mind. For one thing, the scar tissue that normally forms around a pierced hole might block the milk ducts, making it difficult or impossible for you to nurse. Second, if the hole became infected, as occasionally happens in ear piercing, the infection could travel up the milk ducts and affect the entire breast.

@a respondent named Debbie

[…] in a woman a milk duct can be pierced requiring the removal of the rings and healing before repiercing. More than one woman has nursed a baby with nipple rings intact.

The responses here seem to concur with Debbie’s: watch out for infection and avoid piercing the milk duct, and there’s not likely to be a problem.

[Ca3799]

I’m not a lactation consultant, but work with them (and pregnant and post partum moms) regularly. It is not uncommon for our ex-pierced patients to have difficulty breastfeeding due to scar tissue, especially with the larger piercings. There is not one milk duct leading to the nipple, but several (maybe 10 -20 per nipple) very small ones. They are likely to be permanantly damaged when pierced. When those ducts are permanantly damaged, the milk lobules will be unable to empty which could also result in reduced milk production.

Here is a breast anatomy illustration: http://www.breastcancer.org/breast_anatomy.html