A Mom Revealed On TikTok That Her Nipple Fell Off While Breastfeeding & 'New Fear Unlocked'

It feels like there’s no end to the list of horrors when it comes to giving birth, and now you can add another fear to the list: nipples falling off.

TikToker Brooke shared her breastfeeding experience with her followers, and the video detailing the harrowing time her actual nipple fell off has already reached over 1.6 million views.

This article contains graphic content that might not be suitable for some readers.

The video is part of Brooke's series called “I wish somebody would have told me,” but a breastfeeding edition and you wouldn’t believe what she has to say about it.

“You hear the horror stories. People talk about the pain and that they just couldn’t do it,” Brooke says as she begins her video. “It’s like every time you go to latch your baby on; you’re clenching your ass cheeks together because you know it’s going to hurt.”

“So here I am; 15, just gave birth; trying to get my baby to latch,” explained Brooke.

Brooke did everything right on paper. She spoke to her lactation counsellor, and her baby was even gaining a healthy amount of weight.

Even though she had all the help in the world, nothing could have prepared her for when her nipple fell off mid-feeding.

“My nipples started to turn black at the base and white at the tip,” Brooke shared with her followers. “That’s a signal for bad blood flow. There’s no blood flow getting to the nipple. That’s a dead nipple and dead tissue.”

One day as she was breastfeeding her newborn she noticed that he stopped mid-nursing and was “kind of choking.”

“My nipple broke off, and he had it in his mouth,” Brooke added. “I start to panic. I start to freak out. I don’t know what the hell is going on. Luckily I was with my mom and my sister, and they were like, ‘hurry, let's get the nipple and get it back on.’”

So Brooke rinsed the nipple off in water, stuck it back on with a plaster, and then got on the phone with her advice nurse and updated her on the situation.

The nurse told her that “if the nipple is still alive and has enough blood flow in it, it can actually reattach itself and to keep that bandaid on.”

“That’s what I did. My nipple’s not perfect today, but it’s still here,” Brooke shared.

What Brooke went through is a condition called vasospasm and necrosis, and it’s not entirely uncommon for women to experience it while breastfeeding.

Vasospasm happens when blood vessels constrict, limiting the blood flow to the nipples, which in turn causes severe pain from breastfeeding and, in some cases, the nipple to fall off, according to Pregnancy Birth Baby.

“That was the last day I ever breastfed that child. I will never breastfeed again,” Brook said at the end of her video. “I heard breastfeeding was painful and hard to adjust to; I never knew my nipple could actually detach.”

People in the comments section were baffled that such a thing could even happen to a person.

One person commented, “excuse me? A bandaid??? I would have immediately gone to the hospital.”

“The fact that you were even able to grab it and wash it off,” commented another user. “I would be on the floor. You are strong.”

Another user wrote, “new fear unlocked.”

“I did not know that could happen!! Now I’m terrified…I’ll continue to breastfeed, but now that will be on my mind every now and then,” shared another.

A lactation consultant even chimed in and commented: “lactation consultant here. Boy, have I seen some things.”