New mom Meghan McCain has shared her breastfeeding struggles with fans after she and her husband Ben Domenech welcomed their first child — a daughter named Liberty Sage — last week.
The 35-year-old old alluded to nursing being incredibly painful when she tweeted a question about the possibility of her nipples falling off on Monday. While most people assured her she would be fine, a few moms shared their horror stories with her.
‘I know there is a LOT going on in the world that is much more important but I’m in the throes of newborn land…. but I just wanted to know if your nipples can actually fall off from breastfeeding?’ she asked.
Candid: Meghan McCain opened up about her breastfeeding struggles on Twitter on Monday
Keeping it real: The first-time mom asked if it was possible for her nipples to ‘fall off’ from breastfeeding
‘Actually, yes. One of mine did,’ Liddy Huntsman replied, and it was clearly not the answer McCain wanted to hear.
‘Wait WHAT?!?!!’ The View co-host tweeted back.
‘It’s a little too graphic for Twitter,’ Huntsman explained. ‘Although the bar is set pretty low these days…Just wrote you.’
Twitter users who were following the conversation were likely a bit disappointed to learn that they would never find out what had happened to Hunstman.
Another woman, Alison Loukeh, also alluded to a painful breastfeeding experience, though she didn’t explain what had happened.
‘Ummmm, I can’t even put on Twitter what happened to me. No joke,’ she tweeted.
Horror story: Liddy Huntsman claimed one of nipples did fall from breastfeeding
Shocked: McCain was clearly stunned by the woman’s reply to her tweet
Private conversation: Huntsman said it was ‘too graphic’ to talk about online and opted to send a direct message to McCain instead
Hard to handle: The first-time mom later tweeted a GIF of Cam (Eric Stonestreet) crying in bed while watching his daughter on a baby monitor
Dr. Lauren Streicher, a professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told DailyMail.com via email that it’s not possible for a breastfeeding mother’s nipple to fall off.
However, ‘nipple injury usually is due to incorrect breastfeeding technique, particularly poor position or latch-on,’ according to an article written by Dr. Jeanne P. Spencer.
‘Other factors that can make pain caused by injury worse include harsh breast cleansing, use of potentially irritating products, and biting by an older infant.’
Journalist Madeleine Morris wrote in her 2014 book ‘Guilt-free Bottle Feeding’ that many new moms aren’t aware that it’s possible for ‘your nipple to be so gnawed off that it is actually hanging from your breast by a scrap of skin.’
Most people assured McCain that she would be fine. Some recommended nipple guards and lactation consultants, while others admitted that they had to stop breastfeeding because it was just too painful for them.
Family of three: McCain and her husband Ben Domenech welcomed their first child — a baby girl named Liberty Sage — last Monday
Private: The new mom has yet to share a photo of her newborn baby, and it’s unclear if she will. Back in May, she said she didn’t want too many details about her pregnancy to be made public
The first-time mom later tweeted a GIF of Cam (Eric Stonestreet) crying in bed while watching his daughter on a baby monitor.
McCain gave birth to her first-born child on Monday, September 28. She took to Twitter the next day to announce the joyous news.
‘Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all the wonderful well wishes and overwhelming kindness,’ she wrote. ‘Ben and I are completely and utterly in love with our daughter and feeling indescribably blessed/blissed out.
‘We will be watching her first debate as a family together tonight!’
McCain, who is the daughter of late Senator John McCain, married Domenech in 2017 and announced her pregnancy on social media on March 22.
Happy: McCain’s friends and colleagues congratulated her on Twitter after she welcomed her daughter
‘My husband Ben and I have been blessed to find out I’m pregnant,’ she wrote. ‘Although this isn’t how I expected to announce my pregnancy, both we and our families are excited to share the news with you all.’
She shared the news eight months after she suffered a miscarriage.
McCain said she consulted with her doctors, and they agreed that she should be ‘extra vigilant’ about limiting the number of people she came in contact with amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The new mom has yet to share a photo of her newborn baby, and it’s unclear if she will. Back in May, she said she didn’t want too many details about her pregnancy to be made public.
‘Ben and I have made the conscious decision to guard our (growing) families privacy as much as is possible,’ she wrote at the time.
‘I believe children have a right to privacy and hope you will all understand as we navigate this as much as possible going forward without sacrificing our comfort or safety.
‘I know this is an unorthodox choice for a talk show host who is on TV five days a week — but I’ve always lived by the beat of my own drum.’