Ilana Shapiro* describes breastfeeding her first baby as a nightmare. Not only did her nipples hurt while nursing, but the pain lasted for two hours afterward, due to vasospasms?when the blood vessels in the nipple tighten and spasm. ?The pain was so bad that I couldn?t sleep. Then, just as the pain started to go away, she wanted to be fed again,? says the mother of two, who lives in Toronto.
Six weeks postpartum, Shapiro found herself, at the advice of friends, at the Jack Newman breastfeeding clinic in Toronto. A lactation consultant diagnosed her infant with a tongue-tie?an unusually short or thick frenulum, the piece of tissue connecting the bottom of the tongue to the floor of the mouth. The lactation consultant’s theory was that the tongue-tie was the culprit behind a bad latch, which was causing her vasospasms. With her permission, Newman, the paediatrician who runs the clinic, cut the piece of tissue under her infant?s frenulum using medical scissors. ?My daughter screamed right away. She?s crying, I was crying. My mom was crying. It was awful,? recalls Shapiro. ?I felt so guilty. She looked at me as if she were thinking, ?Why did he do that to me"??
All the tears would have been worth it had the tongue-tie procedure, called a frenectomy, helped with the breastfeeding pain. But it didn?t. A couple of weeks later, Shapiro started exclusively pumping.
There is little doubt among health providers that cutting a frenulum can help with breastfeeding. That?s b...