Need advice

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-16-2010
Need advice
Tue, 11-16-2010 - 9:38pm

Hi I am new to this forum. I stumbled upon this forum today and was really impressed with contributions made by different moms. I have a five month old son and I have been exclusively pumping for five months now. My son was born by Csection and never really latched on . The hospital introduced him to the bottle and this made latching

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2010
In reply to: svvv
Wed, 11-17-2010 - 12:25am

I don't think you need to be concerned, it sounds like you are pretty normal. Unless you find pumping is extremely painful, you're probably not doing anything wrong.

The areola and nipple can increase in size from pregnancy. Breastfeeding and pumping can exacerbate the changes and some women will notice a permanent change in areola or nipple size.

As you decrease pumping sessions and your nipple has more opportunity to rest, you may notice they start to decrease in size again, if your areola grew during pregnancy, it is less likely to shrink than the actual nipple. I have not found any scientific study to confirm that pumping is more likely to cause a permanent change in nipple size or interfere with breastfeeding with future pregnancies but there hasn't exactly been alot of research on the topic of exclusively pumping so we're left to trust the stories of other mothers.

I highly doubt that your growing nipples are permanent and will affect future breastfeeding efforts. Your nipples are likely just growing temporarily because of the regular friction and stimulation from the pump. After all, if you pinched and pulled at any part of your body for 20 minutes 8 times a day for months, you'd probably notice that