Breastfeeding Baby, Mellow Mommy: Six Techniques To Make Nursing An Exercise In Comfort

No one can deny that the best healthy diet for a baby is breastmilk.

Breastfeeding my son has been an interesting journey. I attended La Leche League meetings while pregnant, and by the time Benjamin was born felt absolutely confident that nursing my son would be a beautiful experience.

Until his third day of life, when my nipples felt like they’d been scraped with sandpaper for twenty-four solid hours. The lactation consultant was confused; his latch looked fine, she said. I was confused; the books about breastfeeding and the videos I’d seen while pregnant assured me that if a baby’s latch is fine, then the mother will feel no pain.

Eventually, my nipples got used to Benjamin’s vigorous sucking (which I believe was the problem all along), and nursing became a pleasurable bonding experience for both of us.

Although most new mothers experience various challenges of varying degrees during their early nursing sessions, all mothers who breastfeed a baby share one challenge in common: getting comfortable. Even with my teeny six-pound-six-ounce baby, I had a painfully sore upper back for the first couple weeks.

Following are six techniques that will help your initial breastfeeding experiences to be the most comfortable they can be:

1. Sit in a chair that gives great back support.

Notice the word “great.” Good support is okay when nursing your baby, but you still may end up with aches and soreness. If I could do it over again, I would spend my first week as a mommy sitting in different chairs around the house while feeding Benjamin, then have my husband put the most comfortable one in the bedroom.

Instead, I arbitrarily decided a certain rocking chair would be just fine. When Benjamin was several weeks old, I finally discovered that the living room sofa was considerably more comfortable (because I could lean my back and arms into the soft back cushion). Several months after that, I found that the small upholstered rocking chair in the family room was the most comfortable of all.

2. Use a nursing pillow for the early days.

As a newborn, a baby’s head must be held stable and their small body must be held up close to your breast. Take my word, if you don’t use something to support your arms, you will be SORRY. You can find a Boppy pillow in almost any department store that sells baby items. Of course, if you want to be really “green”, you could get the organic cotton equivalent instead.

3. Learn to nurse in the side-lying position.

Breastfeeding your child while lying down allows you to enjoy the rest all new (and not so new!) mothers desperately need. You will need pillow support to do this without straining your back or neck; I recommend a Snoogle (by Leachco). The Snoogle is a body pillow that gives you support in all the right places for nursing while lying down: head, back, and legs.

I originally bought mine to use during pregnancy, but I couldn’t make it work with my growing belly. However, after Benjamin was born, it became a lifesaver. All I had to do was wrap the Snoogle around me and pull my baby close to me; no constant shifting and rearranging necessary.

4. Use a neck wrap heating pad.

My sister-in-law bought me one right before Benjamin arrived (thanks, PJ! 🙂 ). Heat on a sore, tired neck is a Godsend. I only wish I’d used mine more often the first two or three weeks of Benjamin’s existence (after that, I’m happy to say, my neck got stronger).

5. Create a nest.

Preferably before Baby shows up, gather whatever materials that will help meet your physical and emotional needs while you feed him or her. Such materials might include:

• a portable table,
• a laptop computer,
• reading material,
• remote control,
• favorite DVD’s,
• a water bottle (the only must-have, as breastfeeding even the smallest of infants makes you thirstier than the Sahara Desert),
• pen/pencil and paper, and
• healthy snack foods (raw nuts and sun-dried raisins, for example, or healthy convenience snacks such as Larabars or Raw Revolution bars).

Keep the smaller items in a basket, crate, or stool that doubles as storage space.

6. Forget the housework, or hire a maid.

Oh, how I wish I would have used this technique. Please listen to the Voice of Experience: you will make yourself miserable–and miss precious time with your child–if you expect yourself to care for a baby and fix all the meals and keep the house as neat as a pin.

Ask your husband to clean the kitchen in the evenings. You do the laundry and clean the toilets once a week. Everything else? Let it go, or find someone to do it for you.

Incorporate every one of these techniques as you begin to breastfeed your newborn, and you will truly be a “Mellow Mommy.”