Nipple prep?

[Bokoto]

Are any of you doing anything (or did you do anything) to prep your nipples before birth? I didn't have too much nipple pain before my first child was born, but horrible pain with my second (I think, in retrospect, his latch wasn't quite as good as hers). What can and should I be doing to prep my nipples at this point? I've been hesitant to do anything up to this point for fear of stimulating labor (since both of my kids were born early), but now that I'm 37 weeks tomorrow, bring it on!

[spookymama]

Really? I wouldn't do anything to your nipples!

Maybe an arsenal of soothies, lanolin, lots of air time. .. There are a couple of pretty cool you tube videos on latch that I might book mark. One of my favorites is actually done from a doctor, but it's all pretty informative. I can try to find the link for you if you wish?

[limette]

I didn't do anything last time despite somewhat flat nipples (they perked up later in pregnancy). I had no problems with breastfeeding.

[meli-mello]

I was wondering the same thing since this is my first.

[s_kristina]

I have never done anything to prepare my nipples prior to bfing and won't this time either. Anything you could do to prepare them is as likely to cause injury as it is to be helpful. I've seen old advice to rub and even use a brush on your nipples prior to giving birth and that just sounds painful. I'm not sure how causing yourself more pain ahead of time is going to help. The best things for pain afterwards are use of a nipple cream of some sort, making sure you have a good latch and making sure you don't have thrush. I had thrush for 6 months with my dd at the start before I figured it out with help. I'm not sure what I thought the problem was, but I was using lansinoh all the time and it was just feeding the thrush. Once I got rid of that things were fine. I never had any problems with pain from day 1 of nursing my ds, but I was still nursing dd when he was born so my nipples were used to being nursed from.

[limabean]

I'm not into causing definite pain now to prevent potential pain that may not even occur later.

I'll just nurse the baby when s/he comes, focusing on getting a good latch, and if it's uncomfortable at first, I'll know that the discomfort is only temporary -- I remember within a week everything felt fine last time.

[BensMom]

Well, I have a toddler sucking the daylights out of them all day and am longing for the days of my tiny pink nipples from my 1st pregnancy, not these torpedo nipples I have now.

But seriously, you dont need to prep your nipples. Just have some lanolin, soft (cloth) breast pads and the number of a LC or a LLL leader on hand in case you have problems.

[pixiepunk]

ITA - no need to do anything to your nipples ahead of time. like others have said, having some stuff on-hand (like lansinoh, and comfy breastpads) can be nice. and a good book to refer to if you think there might be a problem (and to peruse as you nurse) is a good idea, as is having the numbers handy for a LC and/or LLL should you need them. I called a LLL leader for help with a cracked nipple in the early days of nursing #1 and she was incredibly helpful.

and BensMom, i had to LOL at your post, mostly because i could've written it

[Chinese Pistache]

Technically, you don't need to do anything, but my nipples were really crusty this time. They had hard bits of dry skin clogging the ducts, which I could pick out (gross, huh!?). So, I started putting some lanolin on them after my shower and now, they're no longer rough. I don't know that it will make any difference, but at least they're prettier