Getting my breastfeeding geek on…
(October 2015) I was inspired by a recent study day to refresh myself on breastfeeding A&P and this is the result. I am bowled over time and again by the cleverness of breastfeeding and I am working on a piece about colostrum (honest to goodness the cleverest food ever) which I hope to share at some point but today it’s all about the breast and supply. We will start on the outside with the nipple, or papilla which is a projected part of the breast where the lactiferous ducts end their journey (more on those later!) and the milk comes out. The nipple is surrounded by an areola of varying size, it isn’t important how big it is. It is generally darker than the surrounding breast tissue and this helps the baby to locate the nipple on its first expedition to the breast. The areola has a number of oil secreting glands called (brilliantly I might add) Montgomery’s Tubercles and these help to protect and lubricate the areola. The breast tissue which started to develop in pubert...