Transcript:
This is Maureen Farrell and Heather ONeal and this is The Milk Minute. We’re midwives and lactation professionals bringing you the most up-to-date evidence for all things lactation. So you can feel more confident about feeding your baby, body positivity, relationships, and mental health. Plus, we laugh a little or a lot along the way. So join us for another episode.
Welcome to the Milk Minute Podcast, everyone. Hi, we’re back. We’re back and we’re gonna talk about nipples today. We’re back in the studio and we’re waiting on our pizza to get here. Oh, we ordered a pizza with spinach and artichokes on it because no, we did red peppers and artichokes.
Oh, roasted red peppers and artichokes because you can do stuff like that when you don’t have to order a pizza for your children. I was thinking that when we were ordering it, I was like oh, it doesn’t have to be cheese or pepperoni. Oh my God. We get to order an adult pizza. So be excited for us. We’re really, really feeling ourselves today.
And we just have to order one too. We don’t have to order like eight separate pieces for our husbands, right. Or, or one small gluten free one for the neighbor. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Anyway, which is fine. And I’m happy to do that. That’s so much less complicated. I’ve never ordered such a simple pizza before. But anyway, very pumped for us.
Today we’re gonna talk about nipple piercings, which is very exciting. And, you know, I would say we get this question at least every two weeks. I get it, like surprisingly often, I guess more people decided to pierce their nipples than I imagined. Yeah. And you know, I, I bet this comes in waves, you know, like, I don’t know anyone who’s like between the ages of 32 and 40, who does not have a hole where a belly button ring used to be.
You know, like that, that nineties early two thousands time was a heavy belly button ring time. I did, I did not get a belly button ring, but I did have an eyebrow and a lip piercing. Mm mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. You still have a lip piercing. I do, but I don’t really put jewelry in it anymore. Why? You know, I don’t know.
I just took it out one day and I was like, huh, really? I liked it. Didn’t put it back in. It’s pretty bad. The hole is still there. Does that one close up? You know, I don’t know. It really hasn’t. My eyebrow closed up pretty quick, but I don’t know. I, Hmm. Let’s quickly talk about all the piercings we’ve ever had and the status of them now.
I also did have a hood piercing. You did? Uhhuh! Tell me more. I guess I skipped the belly button and went straight to the vulva. Whoa. All right I need the details. Okay. It was my least painful piercing. That makes no sense to me. Because I don’t know. I guess all my nerves are not on the hood. Well, actually it was, it was really nice.
So there, I got it in college, obviously. And a bunch of my friends and I went to go get piercings when I went to Oberlin. So we had to go like drive to Cleveland or something, you know? And I talked to this piercer for a while cause I was like, you’re gonna be staring straight up my vagina, you know, so like, I wanna feel comfortable with you.
And he was super nice and he explained the whole thing. And he was like, you know, so here’s the tool I use that protects all your other tissues. So like we don’t poke your clitoris, you know, that’s not the point. Do some people get a clitoral? I’m sure they do, but the hood piercing goes on the tissue just above your clitoris.
And then the jewelry, like just touches your clitoris. Gotcha. Yeah. Is it yay or nay? It was yay for a while. But anyway, so. That was actually really nice. And he was like super calm and sweet and was just like very you know, like, okay, like, is it okay if I touch you now? Here’s what we’re getting, you know, is okay.
Are you ready? 1, 2, 3. And it was, I mean, it’s just like such soft tissue. Mm-hmm like it’s thinner and softer than your earlobe, you know? Mm-hmm so it was like, bam. Yeah. Is it like a ring or a bar? It was a curved bar with balls on either end. Hmm. Yeah. They recommended that as like the more comfortable thing to start with, and then you could choose your own adventure.
but actually I had it for a couple years and then I ended up taking it out when I went on this like several day bike trip. If you can imagine. I have a hard time just sitting on a bike anyway, which you can hear about in our episode where we interview Sonya Looney, where I’m just very confused about anyone that’s spends most of their life straddling a hard, yeah, thing.
I used to bike a lot, funny enough because I lived in Ohio and it was super flat and you could like bike 60 miles if you wanted to and it wasn’t that hard. you’re like hood ring or avid bicyclist, you choose. Yeah. Like, and honestly, the, so when you first get it, you’re like really sensitive. Right. But after you’ve had it a long time, you don’t feel it as much.
So kind of like the sensational benefits go away. Oh. So it’s like still, you know, visually appealing or whatever, vajazzled, right. To be vajazzled. But also, I was just kind of like over it at that point, cuz I was like, okay, it’s not like serving me during sex anymore. Like, yeah, just feels like an extra thing. And, and then like it was uncomfortable in that bike ride.
So I took it out and just never put it back. Huh? Well, my belly button ring just kept, got thin. Mm-hmm like the skin was very creepy thin, where you could like feel the bar and it was pushing out after I had Theo. And then I got skinny again after I had Theo, cuz I was 25. Right. And I was like, so snapping back.
And I looked better than ever. And I was like, I’ll put it back in. Why not? And so I got it re pierced deeper and that was, sounded painful, fine. But now I have two holes there and it just didn’t really help the situation. And then I got pregnant with Heidi at 30 and things doth changed after that. And now I just would like to, I have smaller goals, right.
And none of them include a belly button ring, but maybe someday. I mean, I think they’re pretty on other people, but I just, I can barely remember to put in earrings. I’ve also had umbilical jewelry, right? Umbilical jewelry. Oh my God. so I’ve also had my cartilage pierced, which never healed. Yeah. And I was no, for six months it still hurt.
Yeah. I could not sleep like cartilage piercing could not sleep on that side. So I was like over it and then I got my nose pierced. Yeah. And immediately got a keloid. So I took it out and the keloid resolved and also I’m a very big nose blower and I just found it so annoying that I couldn’t like be very aggressive with nose blowing.
Right. Hold on. I have to take my headphones off and count. Okay. I have one cartilage piercing on my left ear and then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 earlobe holes. I think I only have four earrings in right now though. I don’t know what happened to the other one. And then wait, that was my right ear. And then my left ear, I have this really cool one that I’ve thought about taking out because sometimes it’s it like is uncomfortable, but it goes through the, like, what do you call this?
The conch of your ear? Like the round, the Oracle, I don’t know. I just think of it like a shell, like a seashell. It goes through there and then also goes through like the tiny little bit of higher ear lobe. That’s next to it. Yeah. That’s pretty badass. She’ll put it on Instagram for you. It is pretty badass.
And then I think I have two other lobe holes. I don’t know. I can’t, I can’t, well, I don’t have my nipples pierced and I’ll tell you why. Just full disclosure, never really been into nipple play. It does absolutely nothing for me. And then I got a boob job. And when you get a boob job, your nipples are often like really hypersensitive, like pins and needles.
Like very, not that great for a while. And now it’s like, it hurts almost like if my husband goes to do anything with them, I’m like, man, skip it. Yeah. Like, obviously I know you like that. So I will reciprocate and I will lick your nipple if that’s what you like, but it does absolutely nothing for me.
So the idea of getting a nipple piercing was never something that crossed my mind. I just I just didn’t think it would be comfortable. Like day to day wearing shirts and stuff, you know, like yeah. And bras and it seemed like that would be uncomfortable for me. I definitely thought about it, but people do love it though.
Yeah. You know, the people that have their nipples pierced that are like, oh, I love nipple play and it’s actually been really beneficial for my sex life. I’m like, God, that’s amazing. Lean into that. Yeah. Clearly we like piercings over here. I am thinking about getting my nose pierced. I don’t know. Because I’m 32 and I can, you can do, do what I want.
Do whatever you want for now. I mean, God knows they might pass a law saying that you’re not allowed to violate your own body anymore. Oh my goodness. Anyway, standards. So yeah, we’re gonna talk about nipple piercings, but you know, we just had to do our personal piercing rundown first. Piercing rundown.
All right. It’s Maureen here. And I want to tell you that I have finally set up a link so you can instantly book virtual lactation consults with me. Oh, thank the Lord. I know Heather, it took me a long time to take the leap from, in person visits to virtual, but I did. You’re gonna love it. I love doing virtual consults.
They are the best. It serves more people. I’m so glad you took the plunge. Thank you. And if you guys out there wanna book some time with me, you can go to HighlandBirthSupport.com and then click on my lactation services tab is that H I G H L a N D. Yes. Okay. I will see you on zoom, everybody.
Well, let’s thank a couple patrons. Yes. Who may or may not have their nipples pierced. They don’t they don’t disclose that to us. Well, they’re new. So they might, they might later. So I wanna thank Brittany and Tara. They are our newest patrons and we are just so thankful that you guys have joined our community and are stepping up to support us.
It means a lot to us and Brittany is from West Virginia. Right? I think so. All right. Yeah. We love our West Virginians. We love all people, but you know, yes, we are slightly biased. Yeah. So thanks guys. I really appreciate it. Let’s start with a question. Okay. We have a good one today. Alyssa from Delaware, who is a patron.
Yay. Alyssa says, I feel like I have a lot of questions and just re-listened to all weaning related episodes. I know, most people that are going through weaning, yes, run the gamut of all of our weaning episodes. Yes. Because it is a little complicated and we totally understand. She says totally fine if I can’t get all my answers right now. We, we did just choose one for the episode, but I promise I answered. ’em all.
She says my baby is nine and a half months old and goes to daycare Monday through Friday, and usually takes about * to 12 ounces at daycare, depending on the day. In general, she’s on five to six nursing slash bottle sessions a day. Takes four ounce bottles, no bottles when she’s home only breasts.
So that sounds pretty standard. Mm-hmm. She does eat three meals a day at this point and snacks too most days. Also pretty normal. Mm-hmm. I pretty much pump once or twice at work about a seven hour day max. And once after she goes to sleep, also sounds very normal. My question is, how will I know when it’s okay to just nurse her outside of daycare hours and drop to one bottle or no bottles of breast milk at daycare?
I know after one year old, but just planning ahead. My goal is to breastfeed for the foreseeable future but would like to stop pumping at work after one, ideally. Hell yeah. Everybody does. Yeah. So this is. I, I am at this point almost with my own kid where if I like leave for six hours, I don’t pump.
And it’s taken like two months to get there really. And basically what I recommend is that after one, start offering more water with meals and less milk. And encourage baby to drink water and eat more solids while you’re gone, you know, and just tell their caretakers, like you offer them a cup of water first with their meal and then after if they still want it, like maybe offer slightly less milk or cow’s milk, some people want to do that.
Mm-hmm. Some people don’t, it’s fine. As long as you’re still offering something. Exactly. From you when you get home. Yeah. Or yeah, or you can just straight up substitute the bottles with cow’s milk and don’t even mess with that.
And just whatever you do there, take about a month for your baby to adjust to that. Like they might not like it. You might have to try a different strategy, but essentially as soon as baby, just no longer routinely drinks bottles of breastmilk when you’re gone, you can stop pumping. After the age of one. Yes.
Yeah. You know, but before the age of one, I have a lot of patients who are like, I’ve got 500 ounces in the freezer, which is beyond. Yeah, normal. So it’s fine, but it’s not the standard so this is a situation where they find themselves in sometimes and they say, am I allowed to use that milk and just stop pumping at work?
Oh yes. A hundred percent. Yes. Like you’re very regulated. Pretty much after the nine month period, you are so established with breastfeeding that some people choose to just nurse in the morning. Yes. And at night, and they don’t pump throughout the day and they just use the rest of their freezer stash to get them to the age of one. That does require some math on your part. It does.
And if you are pumping a significant amount at work, you know, you require the same amount of time that you would to transition baby away from those breast milk bottles, like to transition yourself. Right. So, you know, do what you’re comfortable with, but like say, you know, the week after your baby turns one, you’re like, what if we dropped one of those breast milk bottles at daycare and it’s really successful.
Well, then the next week you could figure out dropping one pump at work. Right. And I’m sure if you Alyssa, listen to all of our weaning episodes, you already know how to do that, but just give yourself a realistic, like two month timeline for that. Yeah. You are on your own timeline. Yeah. You know, and, and if also, if you feel like you pushed it a little too far, one week, you can take a step back.
Yeah, no problem. Pump again at work and then, you know, slow down your timeline. It’s totally fine. Weaning is a slow process usually. Mm-hmm, usually. Sometimes not, but usually it is. And we will link all of those episodes in the show notes if you guys are looking at weaning.
Let’s take a quick break to thank our sponsor Aeroflow. Aeroflow is your one stop shop to get the most popular breast pumps and accessories through your insurance. Yeah. So don’t let your insurance go to waste. Why don’t you let Aeroflow do all the dirty work for you? You never have to call your insurance when you use Aeroflow and they remind you when you’re eligible for free replacement parts.
Yep. So when you’re tired in your postpartum period, and you’re wondering why your pump isn’t working as well, you might get a text that says, did you know you need replacement parts? And you say, I did not know that. Right? You push a button and boom; they show up at your door. Thanks, Aeroflow. Thank you so much.
Go ahead and check out the link to arrow flow in our show notes and order your pump through them.
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Okay, well, let’s move on to nipple piercings. Let’s do it. I’m so excited. This is just gonna be a silly fun episode. I hope so. Okay. So you, you know, got some holes through your nips when you were 18 and now you’re having a baby and wanna breastfeed. What, what happens next? Yeah. What do I do with these bad boys?
Yeah. So yes, you can breastfeed. However disclaimer about this episode, we don’t really have what we would call evidence about any of this. Just kind of best practices and logical caution, I think is the way I might say that. Right. And some case studies and things like that. Do you wanna start with the concerns?
Let’s start with that, right? Yeah. So I mean, the number one thing that we are thinking about is has the piercing affected any nerves? Yeah. That would prevent stimulation for a milk ejection reflex. So when a baby latches on and they start suckling and it releases all the hormones, because your brain is like, Ooh, something’s sucking on my nipple.
And it starts that process of the big old boob squeeze that squirts your milk out. You know, sometimes we have some nerve damage on the tips of the nipples from a piercing or from breast surgery. Yeah. You know, previous breast surgery, that the nipples basically are not sending that message to the brain.
It’s like a baby could be suckling and the brain is just kinda like LA LA LA what’s happening. I don’t know. Yeah. And it’s not super common. But if you have nipple piercings and you’re like, I have no sensation to my nipples anymore, that’s a good thing to talk to a lactation professional about like prenatally. Mm-hmm yeah.
The other thing is scarring. Yes. So especially if you like me had changed your mind and then gone back and wanted to do a re-piercing. And this is one of my biggest concerns because I’ve seen it and it can be a problem. Right. Cause if we have scar tissue in the milk ducts, we’re obstructing milk flow.
And, you know, yes. That’ll lead to low supply and all that, but also a higher incidence of mastitis. Mm-hmm. And that’s just like a, a really unfortunate place to be. I would say I’ve; I’ve not really seen this to be a huge issue for most of my patients. Yeah. I would say that the next one probably that I’m gonna talk about is more prevalent.
You know, with any prior breast surgery, we wanna make sure that there is an outlet for the milk. Yes. If the milk is being made constantly, but can’t get out, that’s a problem that we know about pretty quickly. So this is something that you would probably notice very early on in the breastfeeding journey.
Absolutely. And you know, there might even be something you can do about it. I mean, at that point, I would refer to a breast surgeon and be like, Hey, is there anything you can unobstruct for me so I can continue on my journey? But obviously we wanna prevent mastitis and abscesses. Yeah. And, and those are, you just have a higher incidence of that with any nipple piercings, particularly ones in the last 12 months.
That you like got in the last 12 months because infections are estimated to occur in 10 to 20% of nipple piercings during that healing time. Mm-hmm. The thing that I see most that’s like annoying for people is the constant drip. Yes. So it’s like, sometimes the holes are big enough that, and you just have the type of breast and chest flow where the milk just constantly just drips out of the holes.
And this is the most common thing that I see too, right. Is people are very worried about breastfeeding and scar tissue, and then it turns out instead they just have extra holes essentially. But those holes don’t respond to muscular contraction, you know?
So like you have your milk ejection reflex and then it kind of like slows down and becomes more, a leaky faucet. Also like you’ll leak in the beginning normally. Yeah. And then as your milk regulates, you don’t leak as much, possibly not. If you’ve got two big holes on each nipple, it might just leak all the time.
Right. Which is totally fine for most people. The issue with that sometimes is that it leads to a faster milk flow. Sometimes newborns struggle with that. It’s usually not an issue for older infants. So I typically tell people to try the laid back breastfeeding positions first. Use extra nursing pads use like the haakaa lady bugs, stuff like that.
It’s almost like a bottle, like when you tip a bottle upside down because of gravity, it just drips constantly. And there’s no control behind that. Yeah. That’s pretty much what I equate that to. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s fine. And like babies can handle it most of the time. So none of these are reasons to not try to breastfeed.
No, at all. No. Yeah. That that’s really not a big concern. Just it’s it I feel like with those issues, it’s really better to know that they might happen than to be surprised. Mm-hmm for sure. The big thing though, that I worry about and a lot of people worry about is jewelry. And it can become a problem even prenatally because we experience so many breast changes that having, you know, most people have metal jewelry for those piercings.
And so using an inflexible piece of jewelry during pregnancy can be really hard because of the breast changes you experience. And then we experience even more nipple changes, postpartum. Typically for people I’ve worked with, with nipple piercings, I recommend buying a flexible piece of jewelry like silicone or something, just to have it in case it is uncomfortable.
Because that usually alleviates that discomfort. And then we have a conversation prenatally about why nipple jewelry is a choking hazard. Because when your baby latches onto the breast, your nipple stretches and the hole that the jewelry is in also stretches. And so your jewelry can become dislodged and a lot of jewelry, you know for these kind of piercings is a straight bar or a curved bar with two little balls on the end that you twist on.
And those balls just, they come loose from time to time, everybody with a piercing like that knows they fall off sometimes. And that is a huge hazard if that’s gonna be in baby’s mouth. So you know, I recommend people take them out every time they nurse, and that is a pain in the butt and I totally get that.
There’s also a theoretical concern that nursing with jewelry in can cause some damage to soft tissues of baby’s mouth, but I haven’t seen it. I have. You have? Yeah. Okay. So with the metal ones. Yeah. Especially, but even the, even the silicone ones. Your nipple stretches like 300%. Yeah. And the goal is always to get your nipple to touch the soft palette of baby’s mouth all the way in the back and repetitive motion with a hard object, even bottles, even pacifiers, especially the bulb syringes from birth can do this.
But definitely a repeated rub of a nipple piercing can cause basically the giant equivalent of a canker sore. Right. So any, and it’s hard to predict, right? Because all of us have different elasticity in our nipples. So whether or not you’re, the spot where you have your piercing is going to extend that far, or it’s not gonna stretch, but the tip of your nipple will, it’s just like our anatomy is all really different.
Yeah. It’s gonna hit different. Yeah. And, and, you know, the biggest thing with this is like a canker sore starts small, but then even if you remove the insult, you know, right. Even if you remove the piercing, it will still continue to grow as it tries to heal itself, it’s so wild and it becomes a butterfly shape.
So if your baby starts popping on and off, starts fussing at the breast, is not taking the breast anymore, please look inside your baby’s mouth and make sure there is not a white butterfly patch of sore at the top of their mouth. Yeah, for sure. And just in general, having something that’s less flexible and larger around your nipple makes it hard to latch, you know?
Yeah. And those balls really scare the crap outta me for getting lodged in the windpipe too. Hard agree there. Okay. Other random concerns, just like things I found while reading studies and case reports Oddly enough, some hyperprolactinemia and galactorrhea. So essentially high levels of prolactin and spontaneous lactation have happened for a couple of individuals who just got nipple piercings but were not pregnant and not nursing.
Whoa. It was reversible. And it reversed when they took out the piercings. Oh, it’s like permanent stimulation, like nerve stimulation. Yeah. And some of those people developed mastitis. So oh, sure. That all stinks. Of course. And then I just wanted to note for people who have more recent piercings, the healing time for that is not just a couple weeks, it’s actually six to 12 months.
And possibly longer if you got any, if you had any like hiccups in the healing process, right? Like, oh, you got a little infection or a little keloid scarring or something. So it’s something to keep in mind that you know, if it’s a recent piercing, your chances of having an infection there are gonna be higher.
Yeah. And you know, you have tons of sugar in your breast milk. Mm-hmm. And it’s a mouth that’s touching your breast. So really we, we do have some cool things in play that nature has helped us out with, like when you add baby saliva to breast milk, it yields hydrogen peroxide on the nipple, which is badass. Badass.
So like, it is cleaning to a point, but I mean, our microbiomes get disrupted all the time. Probably cuz of this pizza we’re about to eat. I’m so excited for the pizza. So, you know, it’s just something to think about. If you’re, if you’re trying to minimize risk to you and baby, you might wanna just consider either not getting a piercing until after you’re done lactating or removing it until you’re done.
Yeah. Well I have some recommendations coming up next. Oh, let’s hear it. I do. Okay. All right. So what can we do to be safe and successful lactating with nipple piercings? Ideally we ask that people remove their jewelry just when they start breastfeeding, just until you’re weaned and don’t put it back in.
It does run the risk of the holes closing, but it reduces the chances of choking for baby and infection for you from repeatedly inserting and removing jewelry. Right. And it reduces the chance of you just forgetting to take it out, like in the middle of the night.
If you wanna keep it in, in between feeding wash your jewelry and your hands. I know from all my piercings, those, those pieces of jewelry get gnarly. And of course, when you’re taking it out and your baby’s cluster feeding, you’re gonna like put it on the table closest to you. So have a system to make that easy. Like have hand sanitizer. Have alcohol swabs, like things that you can sanitize that, and you don’t have to be like, oh, well I have to get up and go do it over there.
So I’m gonna forget, not do it. Cuz that would be me. And if you do choose to leave your jewelry in during a feed, please tighten the balls prior to every single feed. Yeah. That is not ideal, but I understand it’s gonna happen. So I just wanted to mention that. Tighten your balls. You know, and if you let your holes close up that’s okay.
But do remember that the re piercing process can cause that buildup of scar tissue. So, you know, like really just think about, do you want that, like, do you want that piercing now? Do you wanna wait till you’re done having children to get it re pierced? What does that look like for you? What are your priorities around it?
You know? Cause I can’t make that choice for you. What about pumping with them on? So obviously a little bit safer because we don’t have an infant choking risk, but you have to have bigger flanges if you have your jewelry in while you’re pumping, because it adds a couple millimeters, right? So we might have a less than ideal pump fit.
It might get like, I mean, a lot of pump flanges, like funnel. So it might not allow your nipple to stretch all the way down. So it can definitely be a challenge to pump with that jewelry in because a lot of those like tunnels that your nipple is supposed to stretch into are not soft. Right. They’re hard plastic and they kind of funnel down smaller.
So it might restrict how far your nipple is able to stretch in there, you know? And yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And most people that I know who do this, take it out while pumping. So I came across an interesting question while I was looking into this. Is it safe to get your nipples pierced while lactating and no one’s ever asked me that.
So I thought I’d answer. Well, I think this, this makes sense. Yeah. Because a lot of people experience new breast sensations, Uhhuh when they are lactating for the first time, or maybe not even the first time, that feels good to them. Sure. And they’re like, oh wait, you know what, maybe I need to capitalize on this sensation.
Yeah. I mean, we got lots of reasons for doing this. Right. Maybe we just wanna like, actually feel good in our bodies again. Mm-hmm. Feel sexy again. Mm. And we definitely are way overdue for doing an episode about tattoos and piercings, but I’m just gonna give you the short version mm-hmm right now.
Frankly, most professional piercers are just not gonna do this for you if they know you’re breastfeeding. It’s up to you if you wanna disclose it or not. It’d be pretty hard to hide it. I just imagine it. You will probably leak. They’re like cleaning off your nipple with an alcohol wipe and it’s like, and you’re like, sorry, nothing to see here. This has never happened before.
Anyway, so that’s just like, that’s a liability issue for them. And you know, they, they have to be professional. The dangers would be that repeated feeding or pumping would cause it to heal improperly. I don’t see how it couldn’t. Yeah. I don’t know if it could heal properly. Anyway, you would have a higher incidence of infection and mastitis then from that.
And of course, since the jewelry has to remain in while healing, that’s a choking hazard for baby. It’s generally recommended that you wait a couple of months after weaning to do this because your nipples are different when you’re breastfeeding and that they’re gonna change back again. And that takes some time and your hormones are all over, you know, for a while.
So if you’re like, yes, I really want my nipples pierced. I just it’s perfect for me. Best recommendation is wait until after you wean, wait a couple months. But if you’ve just now dried up and then you put nipple piercings in, you may, you could have hyper lactation again. It’s not common. It’s not common though.
But it’s possible. Yeah, but basically, you know, you kind of want everything to return back to a more stable shape and size so that you can ensure you have proper placement and size of jewelry. So seriously go to a reputable piercer who knows what the heck they’re doing. Like, no matter what you’re piercing, right?
I’ve gotten piercings from shady places and from really good piercers. It is worth the money to go somewhere where you feel like you can trust the person sticking a needle in your body. So. Sticking anything into your body. Requires the same level of consent right in my book. Exactly. If you would like to put something in my body, I’ve got a couple questions and exactly I’m gonna need you to ask me right beforehand if I’m still sure.
And if I’m ready and if they have permission to do it yes. And then please follow the post piercing healing protocols closely because localized infection, abscesses, all of that can lead to permanent ductal damage. Indeed. Mm-hmm. And protocols have changed since I got piercings in the early 00s guys.
Like there, it’s not like swab it with alcohol 10 times a day. Now it’s like realistic, like actually like science based healing. Like doing salt, water washes and like putting things on it that are not like Vaseline. Wow. It really does blow my mind, how people experience nipple sensations so differently.
But, and I, I can’t back this up, but I do have somewhere back in the filing cabinet of my mind that there is a connection between our nipples and our clitoris or the head of the penis. I believe it. And I just feel like I’ve been cheated when my dermatomes were being mapped out as a fetus, that my nipples and my clitoris did not join together.
So I am jealous of you people that can get a nipple piercing and like live your best sexual life and not miss out on an entire body part that could be a part of it. Yeah. Like I want that for you. I think a lot of people, you know, just like with any other piercing too, like it’s just an aesthetic thing.
You’re like, I want to add some aesthetic value to my body that like I have control over and I can affect whenever I want. Well, the guy that just dropped off our pizza, I’m gonna guess has nipple piercings. Was he wearing a very thin shirt? Yes. And everything else on him was tatted. You should have just invited him in and been like, Hey, man we’re doing a podcast episode about nipple piercings.
What do you have to say about it? What do you have to say? He’d be like, do it. He’d be like, what do you want on your pizza? Do I get a tip? Do I get a bigger tip for doing this?
Do you have a baby that struggles with excessive gas, fussiness, colic, and general sleep problem. Well, I did, but then I used Evivo probiotics. Evivo is a pediatrician approved probiotic for babies that’s even used in NICU on the gentlest tummies all over the United States. It is an amazing unique product that contains a specific strain of B. Infantis that we need to digest human milk oligosaccharides.
That’s actually 15% of breast milk that your baby will then be able to utilize. Whereas if you don’t have the bacteria, there’s so much extra in the gut, which is why American babies poop like 10 times a day, more than babies that are colonized with B. Infantis. I have personally seen this probiotic help my baby and the babies of many of my clients.
And frankly, if we’re dealing with any of these symptoms, it is the first thing I go. And the best part is it’s not like any other probiotic that we would take when we’re sick or taking antibiotics, where you take it every time you go through antibiotics for the rest of your life. If you give your baby Evivo in the first hundred days of life, it actually colonizes in their gut and becomes a part of their immune system, which then they can pass to the next generation.
And this is how we make change y’all. Evivo is amazing because it’s gonna safeguard your baby’s health today and give you peace of mind in the future. Check out Evivo probiotics through the link in our show notes and enter code MILKMINUTE for $10 off.
Okay. So let’s give an award. Okay. I love that. Love awards.
So today’s award goes to Erin K, who is from our Facebook group. Hmm. Our Facebook group, by the way, is called Breastfeeding for Busy Moms and The Milk Minute Podcast. Yeah. And it’s the shit. Everybody loves it. So it’s great. People go there. They get the things they need. There’s like 16,000 people. It’s, it’s pushing 17 now.
It’s but you know, it’s, it’s still, it’s not become the wild, wild west yet of a Facebook group. It’s still somehow very well managed. Very respectful. Yes. So Erin says, four day work trip win! Successfully managed to get 115 ounces of gross milk across the country through multiple airports and despite canceled flights. The hotel was super helpful with freezing my ice packs and milk on my last night there.
And the TSA agent barely blinked an eye when he screened it at security. Glad to be back home with my baby though. Oh, that’s so awesome. Congratulations, Erin. Good job doing that. That’s amazing. I am very excited that you did that. We do have an episode on TSA and Flying with Breastmilk that we will link in the show notes for you all.
Yeah. 60, 65. Is it I’m gonna guess. Think it’s 65. You don’t know. I bet I’m right. Bet me $5 right now. I will look it up after. I’ll bet you a piece of pizza. Okay. So Erin, we would like to give you the Titillating Transit Award. Yes. Because of all the reasons that that name implies. I can’t. Oh, congratulations.
Good fucking job. Yeah. We’re pumped for you. And just so you guys know if you do an award and you have an Instagram and wanna share a picture, we’ll give you a shout out in our story and tag you. Heck yeah. All right. Well thanks for listening to this episode of the Milk Minute. That was a great one.
It was, it was very, very fun. The way we change this big system that is not set up for lactating families is by educating ourselves, our friends, our children, and anyone that will listen to us talk incessantly about all the reasons we deserve it. Guys pass me in the park while I’m nursing my baby, you know what guys, I think you should become I think a $10 a month patron.
It would be great. I think you should. It would be great. I think we need that. We, we might do this for two more years. Yeah. We might do it for seven more years, but with your support we will. With your support, we will. And we love you and we’re here for you. And I can’t believe that we will never run out of topics.
And I really don’t think we will. We, we won’t, we have like a hundred more at least. Yes. Okay. Well if you want to request an episode, send us an email. Tell us about your nipple piercings, all that jazz. I wanna know. All right, goodbye. Goodbye.
