Are My Nipples Sagging or Elastic?

A common concern for pumping moms is whether or not they have elastic nipples. This is usually attached to the idea that they need larger flanges to accommodate their elasticity, and often leads to a lot of education provided by lactation consultants trying to appropriately size for flanges. So what exactly are Elastic Nipples? Elastic nipples refer to the nipple tissue having excessive elasticity and stretching to the nipples alone. It's not as common as it is believed to be either. In fact, elastic areola (where the breast and base of the nipple meet) is far more likely for moms to experience, especially with multiple births.

How do you know if your nipples are elastic? The average nipple length is between 8-11 mm long and normal elasticity is when the nipple doubles or triples in length. That's why it can be normal for a nipple to grow in length and stretch halfway through a flange tunnel. You can always measure your nipples to determine this by using Jessica's method over at Genuine Lactation. However if your nipple quadruples or more in length then you have above-average elasticity in the nipple tissue. It sounds fairly simple, right? It is but only if EVERYTHING else is optimized for pumping, and unfortunately that is not common for moms. Flange sizing that is far too large will pull in the nipple, areola, and in some cases breast tissue! When looking at that much tissue in a flange, it can be challenging to determine where the nipple ends and breast tissue begins leading to confusion on elasticity.

Another factor that pumping parents are starting to learn is just how impactful bra fit is to their pumping journey. The majority of women are wearing bras that are too small in the cup and far too large in the band, this leads to a lack of support when pumping. Flanges and wearable pumps or cups all require a properly supported band because that is where the weight is at. This causes the pumps, cups, or flanges to all end up pulling away from the breast causing unnecessary stretch and stress on the tissue. That pulling away from the breast encouraged the belief that the bra cups and straps did all of the work, and that's why most peer support groups simply say to tighten your bra straps. While the straps provide additional lift and assistance, the straps simply can't overcome an unsupportive band, so no matter how tight those straps are the flanges still might be away from the breast. What happens then is as the suction is applied more and more tissue is pulled into the tunnel creating the illusion of elastic nipples. We see this even in properly sized flanges where the bra has allowed so much tissue to be pulled that it almost creates the concern for a flange too large and causes moms to end up in flange sizes far smaller than their actual nipples.

So what are the first steps to ruling out a pumping situation that isn't optimized? First, make sure to measure your nipples! A general rule of thumb is that for traditional tug and release pumps, you need to add 2-4mm for the flange size. Next would be to make sure your pumping bra is doing its actual job. No "over-the-shoulder boulder holder" should be allowed to leave your breast clinging to a flange for dear life; it's far too simple to figure out your proper bra size. If you're confident in your pumping setup, but still having issues with controlling the elasticity and having discomfort simply book a consultation. Oftentimes we can tweak things just enough to manage the elasticity and get you pumping comfortably.