Blood in Breast Milk

It can be alarming to look down and see that there is blood in your breast milk.

This can happen due to a cracked or damaged nipple. Damage can occur if the breast shield size if wrong, or the flange wasn't centered correctly, or if you're nursing, if your baby had a bad latch.

You can feed breast milk with blood in it - if you were nursing, you wouldn't necessarily know the blood was there.

But some people would rather dump it. Here's a poll I did on my Instagram stories about feeding "strawberry milk."

The one thing to look out for is if the milk changes to pink or red after you pump. This could be bacteria rather than blood, and you should talk to your pediatrician before feeding.

More on cracked and bleeding nipples when pumping here!