There is reference to mothers using nipple shields as far back as 1550. The original nipple shields were made of bone, cow skin, pewter, glass or tin. These early shields were conically shaped with several holes in the tip; they provided a physical barrier between the mother’s breast and the baby’s mouth, therefore decreasing pain with latching. By the 1850s they were made of rubber and, in the 1950s, they were made of latex (Powers, 2012).