Outcome of non-protractile nipple correction with breast cups in pregnant women: a randomized controlled trial

The benefit of antenatal nipple correction remains inconclusive. This study aims to demonstrate the value of breast cups in lengthening of short nipples and to compare the breastfeeding rate between the users and the nonusers.

Singleton pregnant women with at least one short nipple (<7.0 mm) were enrolled at a gestational age (GA) of 16-20 weeks. All participants were randomly allocated into the breast cup group (BC group) and the expectant group (EX group). The first group was requested to wear breast cups for at least 8 hours during the daytime, whereas the second group was not. The nipple length was evaluated prior to the study and at every visit until GA of 36 weeks by the same blinded evaluator.

Among 90 eligible participants (43 in the BC group, 47 in the EX group), the nipple elongation in the BC group was significantly higher than in the EX group (2.37±1.29 mm versus 1.84±0.98 mm; p=0.032), with a mean difference of 0.53±0.24 mm (95% confidence interval 0.05, 1.01). On Day 3, there was an insignificantly higher number of mothers with a LATCH score of ≥7 in the BC group. The 3-month exclusive breastfeeding rate in the BC group was insignificantly greater than that of the EX group (65.39% versus 50.0%; p=0.35).

Breast cups are safe and well tolerated by users and evidently increase the length of short nipples and enhance the exclusive breastfeeding rate.