Women’s Experiences Using a Nipple Shield

An informal, retrospective telephone survey of 202 breastfeeding women was conducted over an 8-month period of time, assessing patients' perceptions regarding use of a silicone nipple shield. Women used the shield most frequently because of flat nipples (62%). Other reasons for shield use included the infant's disorganized suck (43%), sore nipples (23%), engorgement (15%), prematurity (12%), short frenulum (1%), and other reasons (1%). Forty-six percent of the women gave more than 1 reason for using a shield. Sixty-seven percent of the women continued to breastfeed after transitioning off the nipple shield. Median duration of nipple shield use for this group of women was 2 weeks. Thirty-three percent of the women who used the nipple shield with every breastfeeding breastfed from 1 day to 15 months. Five percent of women used the shield on only one side from 1 day to 9 months.