Letter: Inverted nipples are no bar to breastfeeding

YOUR article 'Nipple aid 'will help thousands of women' ' (10 January) states incorrectly that women with inverted nipples are unable to breastfeed. It is this misinformation given by many health professionals, rather than the inverted nipples themselves, which causes many women to fail at breastfeeding.

While the bottlefed baby sucks on the rubber teat, the breastfed baby latches onto the areola, the pigmented area around the nipple, rather than the nipple itself, so it does not matter too much if the nipple does not protrude.

While nipple aid may be useful for some women, I and many other National Childbirth Trust breastfeeding counsellors have helped many hundreds of women to breastfeed successfully despite inverted nipples.

Maggie Hamand

London E8