When Wanda Yates, a mother of four from Philadelphia, Penn., attended her high school reunion, she wanted to make an impression. Just not with a wet shirt. Yates, who had chosen to breastfeed her youngest child, posed for a class picture, one that captured a failed attempt to keep her swollen breasts from leaking breastmilk.

"I had a satin shirt and the camera captured my leaky stain in ‘that’ spot on film for eternity," Yates recalls. "I was used to being extra careful in public. I used breast pads, lots of them, usually wore patterned shirts and dresses to camouflage the milk until I could get back home and change."

Breastmilk leakage typically begins after childbirth, when a woman’s body begins producing milk. It affects mothers who choose to breastfeed as well as those who choose not to breastfeed and leak while waiting for milk production to cease. According to Dr. Jon Jantz, a pediatrician at Wichita Clinic-Bethel in Newton, Kan., the term breastmilk leakage most often refers to the uncontrollable release of breastmilk from the nipple in response to a reflex known as "let down." For many years health care providers assured mothers that breastmilk leakage would stop within several weeks after giving birth. Now, most physicians and lactation consultants say otherwise. Jantz often tells new breastfeeding mothers it isn’t unusual to experience this kind of let down and leakage for several months.

"I leaked consistently for about the first three months," says Libby Baker, a 26-year-old nursing mother from Roanake, Va. "But I knew that the benefits of breastfeeding far outweighed the inconvenience of a wet shirt." Despite believing that breastfeeding was the right choice for her baby, Baker still battled breastmilk leakage. "At one of my son's first doctor visits, I took a cab into the clinic and by the time the appointment was over, I noticed I had leaked all down my front," Baker says. "It was the first time I'd experienced this. Fortunately, it was raining and I stood in the rain for a few minutes before hailing a cab. No one was the wiser."

Health organizations such as the Surgeon General's office and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend breastfeeding for at least the first year, but for some mothers, constantly leaking breasts can override this advice.

"During the day, I would completely soak t-shirts and it would be so embarrassing. I was ready to give up [breastfeeding] for dry clothes," says Troya Yoder, a mother of two from Alabaster, Ala. Others, like Lisa Beamer, a 34-year-old mother of three from Pittsburgh, Penn., just accepted breastmilk leakage as a part of the choice to breastfeed. "I just learned how to deal with it. It was just a part of life," explains Beamer. "I do recall that the longer I nursed, the less the leakage happened. It was most prevalent in the earlier months of breastfeeding. Both of the babies I nursed weaned themselves around 9 months, and by the time they were done, there was no leakage, even after they stopped nursing altogether."

Beamer found that she could expect to leak breastmilk if her babies went longer than usual between feedings, or if she was away from them and needed to pump breastmilk. "Sometimes I'd leak just from the anticipation of feeding them or when they started to cry," Beamer says. "I also leaked when taking a hot shower ... I looked like a sprinkler system." To combat leakage, Beamer always made sure she used breast pads, also known as nursing pads, inserted between her bra and her breast. But even that didn’t always work. "I was usually home when the problem occurred, so it wasn't too big a deal to take care of, but if I was out and could feel that tingling feeling that I came to recognize as the precursor of leakage, I crossed my arms over my chest and pressed on my nipples until it passed," she says. "That usually curtailed the leakage, or at least minimized it."

It was that exact discovery - pressure eliminated leakage - which led a former medical student to invent a plastic device to control breastmilk leakage. Known as the Breast Leakage Inhibitor System, BLIS differed from most products available to breastfeeding women because rather than soaking up a steady flow of breastmilk, it stopped the leak from occurring, says Erika Davis, spokesperson for ProLac Inc., the company that manufactures the product. "[BLIS] is a soft, flexible disc that controls breastmilk leakage using the natural method of gentle, even pressure on the nipple," Davis says. "The pressure stops the leaking and prevents wetness on the skin and clothing."

The device, now patented and FDA approved, was invented in 1992 by Jerry Morrissey after the birth of his daughter. Morrissey’s wife, like many new mothers, tried both disposable and reusable nursing pads and found they still soaked through onto her clothes. After a trip to the local hardware store, Morrissey and his wife rigged a plastic device that could fit inside a bra and mimic the gentle pressure many women apply with the palms of their hands to control let down.

BLIS - and ProLac, the corporation Morrissey formed to manufacture and market the product - soon followed. According to Davis, today BLIS is charging into a growing market of women facing the daily inconveniences of leaking breastmilk.

According to recent research, more than 90 percent of new mothers experience breastmilk leakage. Like many of them, Suzanne Yadav, who lives in New York, N.Y with her husband and now 9-month-old daughter, tried nursing pads to curb breastmilk leakage. "I tried to use (nursing) pads, but they were uncomfortable, bulky and well, gross," Yadav says. When her daughter was a few weeks old, Yadav began using BLIS and the difference was immediately evident. "I could actually dress up again," she says. "I knew that if I was using BLIS, I was safe. The worst that ever happened was that the liner got a little damp. I never leaked like I did when I was using pads." The idea of designing an insert that puts pressure on the nipple area to counteract let down seems like such a simple idea, Yadav said, but one that has been a long time coming.

Jantz agrees. "Anything that makes it more likely for a woman to continue the breastfeeding relationship with her child can only be a ‘positive,’ " says Jantz.