SOL: The Story of Piercings vs. Breast Feeding 

/ TWL - Working Mom


I start this off with a young picture of my daughter because this story is the struggle of me not knowing a thing about pregnancy and having a baby but hey, she turned out so cute anyway !

I pierced my nipple when I was 19 and I never took it out. I knew when I got pregnant, I was going to have to take it out. It was a hoop and I figured since I had a few other piercings, this would be totally easy to take out and I would get around to it. 

But with pregnant brain, I forgot. And it’s also not something you think about on a daily basis! So fast forward to my last ultra sound. 

We go in, my doctor tells me we’re going to have to have the baby by c section and I and I’m thinking ok , sometime this weekend or Monday,  I have to get to work. He corrects me with in 2 hours and I start to panic. I haven’t taken the nipple ring out ! 

My doctor tells me to go home and pack and we get home and I take off my shirt and now I’m panicking because I’m pulling the ring and it’s not coming out. I can’t even get the little ball off the ring. 

I grab the pliers. As you can imagine this, I am using the pliers and pulling the other side, with this piercing still in me, super pregnant, and literally yanking this out. 

It’s. Not. Budging. 

Now I am freaking out! 

I don’t have time to go to a tattoo parlor and get it out. How am I going to breastfeed ?! 

My husband and I make the decision to let it stay and we’ll ask the people at the hospital to do it. Perfect. 

Fast forward 3 hours. Hospital will not take it out for me. I goin for c section. I have to tell everyone and their mother about my nipple ring (humiliating) and then everyone look at me with judge mental eyes. 

Fast forward one hour. Baby is here. I am a mess and sedated and can barely move but it’s time to breast feed! I am binky drugged and can’t have emotion but am very upset about this nipple ring. 

Finally. A nurse comes to my rescue. She gives me a plastic nipple guard that I can use to breast feed. 

It worked. 

Verdict ? You can breast feed with a nipple ring. 

But I think next time, I will have it taken out !

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18 thoughts on “SOL: The Story of Piercings vs. Breast Feeding ”

  1. I had to giggle at this post, because I don’t remember this topic being covered in my pregnancy books…but I’m sure there are a lot of women who face this predicament! Your daughter doesn’t seem to be underfed, so it looks like it all worked out!

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  3. I don’t have a piercing there, but totally felt your panic. LOL. Great story! I actually had difficult nursing with child #1 and I turned to nipple guards at home….didn’t work for me. I ended up just dealing with the cracked nipples before the whole process got better. With the next two kids, it was easy peasy. Go figure. 😊

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  7. Oh my my my, what a crappy experience. I’ve always wondered about how piercings and breast-feeding would combine. Thanks for clearing that up! She’s going to have a great story to tell when she’s older.

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