Nipple and areolar piercing

The effects of nipple piercing on breastfeeding haven’t been studied much at all.

• It can take 6-12 months for an initial nipple piercing to heal, so breastfeeding prior to healing may cause complications.

• You also can’t donate milk for 12 months after receiving a piercing (or a tattoo).

However, once you understand how babies suck, here, it will make sense to you that nipple jewellery is likely to interfere with a baby’s capacity to comfortably transfer milk from the breast. For this reason, it’s usually best to remove nipple jewellery before breastfeeding, and mostly women find it easiest to remove the jewellery for the entire duration of breastfeeding their baby, except perhaps on special occasions. Taking the jewellery in and out too often can cause nipple tenderness and infection.

Since the nipple might become tender as the breast changes in pregnancy, some women take nipple jewellery out once they are expecting. Other women put a taper in between feedings to keep the piercing open.

A case study of three suggests that duct obstruction can be caused by nipple piercing, also associated with a mastitis, or milk leakage through the piercing tract. But in most cases, piercing of the nipples doesn’t seem to interfere with lactation.

Selected references

Garbin CP, Deacon JP, Rowan MK, Hartmann PE, Geddes DT. Association of nipple piercing with abnormal milk production and breastfeeding. JAMA. 2009;301(24):2550-2551.

Lee B, Vangipuram R, Peterson E, Tryring S. Complications associated with intimate body piercings. Dermatology Online Journal. 2018;24(7):2.