Nipple Piercings and Breast Feeding
Unfortunately no studies regarding nipple piercings and breast feeding have been conducted.
The nipple contains many milk ducts. Piercings intersect the nipple and the ducts perpendicularly. Most likely at least a few ducts would be blocked by the piercing. There is a risk of blocked ducts becoming irritated or infected if the milk collects in the blocked ducts and cannot be expressed.
Most piercers maintain that nipple piercings will not interfere with breast feeding later in life, provided that the piercings have completely healed with minimal scarring.
One reader reported that the jewelry became extremely uncomfortable during the final tri-mester, which forced her to remove the rings.
Removal of jewelry is suggested, a task which may become tiresome and painful with the condition of the nipples during breastfeeding; for many women breastfeeding can be quite painful at first. Jewelry may damage the baby's delicate palate and prevent the baby from forming the tight seal around the areola necessary for breast feeding.
Several women who have never had children, and a few men, have commented that they have experienced discharge through the front of the nipple during the latter stages of healing. This discharge is most likely discharge that is associated with a healing piercing and not milk. A representative of the Lactation Institute responded that piercing the nipple will not instigate milk flow.
Kelly Fahey comments:
I will caveat this by saying that had my nipples pierced well after I had my kid and stopped nursing. So I have experience in nursing and in pierced nipples, but not in nursing with pierced nipples. I have lactated consistently since my son was born 5 years ago. I've continued to lactate no more or less with pierced nipples than I did with unpierced nipples (ok, so it was a bit more at first!).
There are 2 things that would seem to possibly affect a decision to pierce the nipples in regard to lactation. The first is that the jewelry would have to be removed during the period of nursing. In my experience, it is completely unreasonable to think you could remove the jewelry only when it's time to nurse. Time to nurse (in the first few months) means every 3 to 4 hours. Imagine taking time to remove nipple rings at 3 am with a baby screaming! Pregancy and nursing change the body incredibly. It's entirely logical that the piercings would close during this period, and even if they didn't the breasts and nipples are most likely not going to be shaped quite the same after weaning.
The second factor is that breast milk comes from various small openings (ducts) in the nipple surface, not a single one. I'm certain that some of the milk ducts in the nipple surface are lost in piercing. Additionally, the suckling sensation might prove to be really uncomfortable with any scar tissue formed around a well-healed piercing. Nursing can be intensely painful all by itself.
Another woman comments:
Although I did breastfeed both my girls (the baby until she was 3) I didn't have my nipples pierced then. I do now, and I think that the gauge of the ring would really mess up the milk expulsion. I still had milk at the time of my nipple piercing although haven't nursed in years, and the rings pierced the ducts and they now don't express like they did prior to the piercing. IMHO it is best to wait on the nipple rings until the breastfeeding experience is over. For me the nipple piercings were a right of passage from "mommie" to parent of young adults - sort of.
Caro comments:
I had stopped breastfeeding about six months before I was pierced, and I had, to my knowledge, stopped lactating. When I was pierced, it stimulated lactation, my doctor said. As I wasn't nursing or expressing, I developed a breast infection and had to be treated with antibiotics.
So my response would be this: If you have already nursed a baby, it's possible that a piercing will cause you to relactate. If you have not already nursed a baby, piercing will not induce lactation. Note: It is possible for a woman to nurse an adopted baby, so hormones are not totally necessary for lactation, but repeated persistent stimulation of the right kind is required.
References: Lactation Institute, Encino, CA, (818) 995-1913, Chele Marmet, Director