Can Women With Inverted Nipples Use a Breast Pump?

Inverted nipples can make breastfeeding your baby challenging; the brushing of the erect nipple against the hard palate of your baby's mouth stimulates the sucking reflex. If the nipple retracts instead, the baby might not suck effectively or get much milk. However, you can use a breast pump if you have inverted nipples to feed your baby breast milk from a bottle or to help prevent nipple inversion.

Why Nipples Invert

Congenitally short milk ducts or scar tissue, also called adhesions, can cause inverted nipples as the milk ducts, which connect to the nipple, pull it inward, according to Manhattan Aesthetic Surgery. Inverted nipples often improve during pregnancy, so if you're one of the 33 percent of women who experience nipple inversion or flatness before getting pregnant, according to international board certified lactation consultant Anne Smith, it doesn't mean you can't breastfeed. Skin changes during pregnancy make breast tissue more elastic, which can cause the nipple to evert normally. Around 10 percent of women have inverted nipples, or nipples that don't protrude from the breast tissue, after giving birth, according to Smith.

Using a Breast Pump Before Nursing

You can use a breast pump even if your nipple inverts. Breast pumps don't fit around the nipple only, they apply suction to the areola, the brownish area around the nipple. This compresses the tissue and stimulates milk flow. Pumping for a few minutes will help draw out the nipple so your baby can latch on more easily, so pumping for a few minutes before feeding can improve your baby's latch-on.

Breaking Up Adhesions

Breast pumps can help you to permanently prevent nipple retraction. Using a breast pump can help break up adhesions under the nipple that are making the nipple draw inward by applying uniform pressure from the center of the nipple, Smith explains. Pumping both breasts for 15 to 20 minutes every two hours can help break up the adhesions, La Leche League International suggests. As the adhesions decrease over time, your baby's vigorous sucking might be all you need to draw out inverted nipples and prevent them from inverting again.

Pumping Breastmilk

If your baby can't latch on despite your best efforts, you can pump breast milk to bottle-feed him if you have inverted nipples. Sometimes the adhesions won't break up; nursing in this case can cause pain and your baby won't get much milk, La Leche League International explains. In this case, you could choose to breastfeed your baby just from one breast if you have more severe nipple inversion on one side than the other. Use a high-quality breast pump to pump supplemental milk from the other side or to continue to try to break up the adhesions.