Jess Hardiman
A nursing mum was shocked when she realised her armpits were leaking milk – believing at first that she had a ‘third nipple’, only to find there’s a perfectly good reason why it was happening. Watch her recount the alarming experience below:
Lindsay White (@thelittlemilkbar) recently shared a video on TikTok to explain how you can ‘leak breast milk in places other than your boobs’, telling viewers: “This is going to blow your mind.”
She recalled: “One day I was feeling Allie and realised her hair was soaking wet. Then I realised it was coming from my armpit.
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“I thought I was just really sweaty, but then I noticed this huge lump.
“White said she ‘squeezed it’ and, much to her surprise, ‘milk squirted out’, so decided to visit her doctor.
“I went to the doctor, thinking maybe I had a third nipple, but she said ‘Nope! Your milk line actually runs all the way up through your armpits.”
White's video has since racked up more than five million views, saying in a follow-up post that while she only ever leaked from one spot with Allie, when she got pregnant with her son Koda, she leaked milk out of ‘both sides’.
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She said: “Instead of having just one big lump, I had these two little things pop up that have never been there before – and on the other side too.
“So I leaked milk out of three spots on one side, and two sides on the other... I’m definitely a milk maker!”
According to Emily Brittingham, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), it’s completely normal for the breast to have tissue that extends to the armpit.
Writing for BellyBelly.com, Brittingham explained: “At six weeks gestation, when you were a tiny embryo in your mother’s womb, milk lines began to develop, starting from your underarms.
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“These lines travelled down both sides of your torso and extended all the way to your groin.”
She continued: “From 16 weeks gestation, the ‘tails’ at both ends of these lines started to regress.
“In some fetuses, though, the line doesn’t fully regress at either end and leaves the ‘tail.’ Tissue that extends into the armpit is called axillary tissue, or ‘the tail of Spence.'”
During pregnancy, the level or hormones that help create milk is 10 to 20 times higher, Brittingham said, adding that these hormones trigger the milk ducts to expand.
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“The ducts begin to branch out within the breasts. They can stretch to reach any ‘tails’ of breast tissue along the milk line,” she said.
“If there’s extra breast tissue in your armpit, it’s possible there’ll be milk ducts, too.”