Breast lumps are very common in women who are pregnant and women who are not pregnant. Most of the time, these are caused by benign problems that are not cancerous. Once in a while, a lump is a sign of something serious. For that reason, any women, pregnant or not, who finds a lump in her breast should see her physician and have it checked out. Nipple discharge, as discussed earlier, is also a fairly common sign and in pregnant woman is also less worrisome but again should be evaluated by a physician.
Breast pain is a very common and nonspecific problem in both pregnant and non-pregnant women.
This makes it harder to feel lumps and makes it very important that a woman have a good breast exam early in pregnancy as a baseline for later comparison. Most of the common problems are not hereditary. We usually leave inverted nipples alone and most women with inverted nipples are able to breast feed. If the nipple inversion is new, that is if the woman has not had it all of her adult life, it may be a sign of a problem and she should see her physician. After pregnancy and after breast feeding, once you are finished breast feeding and they have shrunk down again, or involuted, lumps may be more prominent which creates the appearance of being more lumpy.