Raynaud's Syndrome

As if my pregancy wasn't bad enough... I had a really awful time breast feeding. It at one point was incredibly painful. My nipples were cracked and bled. I felt a sense of dread and anxiety everytime I had to feed my baby but was determined to breast feed for the first year of his life. THEN, when I was done feeding him, I would get a searing pain that moved across my chest that would last for up to an hour.

One day after a good cry, I decided to consult a lactation specialist. I saw her learned that #1. My baby had a bad latch and #2 I had Raynaud's Syndrome.

Oh great, something else to worry about....but actually it wasn't that bad and seems to be very treatable. I was just relieved that there was a reason for my pain and that I was not a TOTAL failure as a breastfeeder.

So what is Reynaud's?

Here is part of a great article I found about it.
"Raynaud's phenomenon is due to spasm of blood vessels preventing blood from getting to a particular area of the body. It occurs in response to a drop in temperature. Most commonly, Raynaud's phenomenon will occur in the fingers, typically when someone goes outside from a warm house on a cool day. The fingers will turn white and the lack of blood getting to the tips of the fingers will cause pain. Raynaud's phenomenon occurs more commonly in women than men, and is often associated with illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Raynaud's phenomenon can also occur in nipples. In fact, it is much more common than generally believed. It can occur along with any cause of sore nipples, is, in fact, probably a result of damage, but it may also, on occasion, occur without any other kind of nipple pain at all.

Typically, Raynaud's phenomenon occurs after the feeding is over, once the baby is already off the breast. Presumably, the outside air is cooler than the inside of the baby's mouth. When the baby comes off the breast, the nipple is its usual colour, but soon, within minutes or even seconds, the nipple will start to turn white. Mothers generally describe a burning pain when the nipple turns white. After turning white for a while, the nipple may actually turn back to its normal colour (as blood starts to flow back to the nipple), and the mother will notice a throbbing pain. The nipple may go back and forth between colours (and types of pain) for several minutes or even an hour or two."

For more go to :
http://www.asklenore.info/breastfeeding/raynaud.html

The loss of color in the nipple is called "blanching". When you first feel the pain in your breast look and see if the nipple looses its color. It seems that everytime the pain gets bad this happens- from MY own experience. Poor positioning and poor attachment or latch may cause blanching of the nipple and pain during breastfeeding. I also read that because the breast pain associated with Raynaud's phenomenon is so severe and throbbing, it is often mistaken for Candida albicans infection.

Hopefully, no one will go for as long as I did. I spent almost 7 weeks in just the WORST pain. So I hope this helps some of you!!!! Thankfully, I made it to 14 months of breastfeeding!

-SBH