Hi Wombles,

I have inverted nipples and I successfully breastfed my DS till he self weaned at 14 months, and he was slowish to start solids too so he was exclusively BF till about 10 months.

I too was worried before DS was born, as I'd head all the horror stories about inverted nipples. For me BFing has been one of the most fantastic experiences of my life and I am so proud of myself.

Like SamiH said, every BFing relationship is different. Find what works for you and go with it. What worked for me and others may not work for you (or hopefully it will!). I didn't use nipple shield and I didn't pull my nipples out.

Anyway, this is my story:

I did heap of reading before DS was born so I was totally over informed about all things BFing.

After DS was born some of the midwives in the hospital would pinch my nipples to try and make them come out and I HATED it! It really took me by surprise because I can't even remember them telling me what they were going to do, let alone asking me if it was ok. But I was too overwhelmed at the time to say NO STOP TOUCHING MY NIPPLES!!! It wasn't all of the MWs, jut a couple of them and by day 2 I was strong enough to tell them to bugger off if it looked like they were about to give them a tweak. In my experience it was completely unnecessary for anyone to touch my nipples. If you feel comfortable touching them then that's fine but don't feel like you have to let other people touch them. And I never did, I just put DS on and he pulled them out himself (but I think he was a good sucker) and I found his sucking much gentler than nasty fingers.

In the early days I paid very close attention to getting attachment right. I would attach DS myself and get a MW or LC to check. I did this for every feed for the first few days (I was in a Private Hospital and so had MVs whenever I wanted for 4 days). What worked best for me was to just shove as much of the areola in as I possibly could. Sometimes I would poke a bit more in on the side with my finger, rather then pull off and reattach and surprisingly that seemed to work a treat for us.

The MWs and LCs kept going on and on about it not hurting if you're doing it properly. They kept saying that if it hurts, then your attachment's not correct. For me it really, really, really hurt and all the MWs and LC agreed that the attachment was right. Then at about the 6 week mark it suddenly just stopped hurting and we went ahead in leaps and bounds from there.

I hope that helps. Please come back and tell us how you're doing and ask us for help anytime.