3 Reasons Why They’re Not, and 2 Exceptions
It seems as though there is an ever-growing list of items that new parents are told (or somehow come to believe) that they need to purchase when they are expecting a baby and plan to breastfeed.
Breastfeeding pillows are often somewhere near the top of that list, closely followed by special feeding chairs, breast pumps, bottles, teats, and nipple shields.
So, are breastfeeding pillows necessary? Do they make breastfeeding easier?
The answer to the first question is pretty obvious. Of course, specialised breastfeeding pillows are not necessary. Humans have been breastfeeding our babies without any special equipment since we developed mammary glands.
Millions of years of evolution have enabled our bodies and our baby’s bodies to fit together perfectly and comfortably for nurturing our babies at the breast. For most of human history, breastfeeding has been integral to the survival of our species. If it was difficult or uncomfortable for most of us to do that without a special breastfeeding pillow humans would have died out long ago.
The second question is almost as easy to answer. And the answer is a resounding – no.
In the vast majority of cases, breastfeeding pillows do not make breastfeeding easier. Actually they often make breastfeeding more difficult and can make it more difficult to achieve a comfortable and effective latch for the baby and a comfortable posture for a breastfeeding mother.
Working as an IBCLC, many of my clients are using breastfeeding pillows. I see over and over again that breastfeeding pillows often contribute to the issues clients have with getting babies to latch, nipple pain and damage, and babies not being able to effectively feed and drain the breast well.
One of my first questions is often “How would you feel about trying without the pillow?”. This is why I decided I needed to write a post about it!
So what are the problems with using breastfeeding pillows?
Firstly, they negate one of the best things about breastfeeding – which is that it doesn’t require anything but you and your baby. Learning to breastfeed using a special feeding pillow means that you may come to feel dependent upon it and don’t feel confident to feed without it. This means needing to lug these bulky great items around with us everywhere we go. What a nuisance!
Secondly, one of the biggest problems with breastfeeding pillows is that they prevent the full-body contact with their mother that babies need in order to engage all of the instincts and reflexes that help them to breastfeed.
Ideally, your body is your baby’s pillow! When using breastfeeding pillows, women tend to prepare for the feed by sitting upright, laying the baby on the pillow in front of them, and leaning forward to attach the baby to the breast.
But babies breastfeed best when they feel the direct firm pressure of their chest and body against that of their mother. This full-body contact causes them to reflexively lift their little chin, stretch out their neck and tilt their head back, allowing their jaw to drop wide open.
This allows your baby to achieve a lovely wide gape so that they can take in a big mouthful of breast tissue, and it pushes their chin forward so that they can anchor it deeply into your breast. In an upright position, without that body contact, mothers often struggle to help their baby to achieve that wide gape needed to achieve a comfortable latch.
Without a wide gape, babies find it difficult to take in enough breast tissue to allow the nipple to reach the soft palate where it is protected from friction. Instead, the nipple will be pushed up by the tongue against the hard palate in the roof of the baby’s mouth causing pain and damage to the sensitive nipple tip – Ouch!!
Plus, in an upright position, which breastfeeding pillows encourage, you have to use a lot of strength through your arms to hold your baby against your body, as gravity is constantly trying to drag the baby away from the breast.
But if we take away the pillow and recline a little, bringing the baby with us (as in the image above), then the baby is now laying on top of our body, and gravity is keeping us together. Now we can relax our neck, arms, and shoulders.
Throw cushions or pillows can be used to support your body in a comfortable position (often tucked under your elbows and forearms so you can relax your neck and shoulders) – not to support your baby.
Thirdly, breastfeeding pillows discourage us from “bringing the baby to the breast, not the breast to the baby” – which is one of our helpful little sayings in the breastfeeding world.
When we use a breastfeeding pillow, it often lifts the baby up to the wrong height so that the baby sits higher than the mother’s nipples. So, to solve that problem, we tend to lift our breasts up and out in an unnatural position, in order to reach our baby’s mouth.
Often we need to continue to support the breast in that position for the entire feed to prevent the weight of the breast from dragging the nipple out of our baby’s mouth. This can result in wrist, arm, neck, and shoulder pain.
Pregnancy, birth, and caring for a new baby can already be a big adjustment for a woman’s muscles and joints.
In addition to finding a comfortable and effective breastfeeding position, hands-on treatment from an osteopath or other health care provider can be invaluable in keeping you pain-free while carrying and caring for your baby. Your practitioner can release the muscles in your neck, shoulders, chest, forearm, and wrists and suggest a couple of short, specific strength exercises to help manage any pain.
Additionally, if a mother has raised her breast to bring it to her baby and then takes her hand away from the breast – and if the baby somehow manages to stay latched on – it often results in nipple pain and damage. This is beacuse gravity is trying to drag the nipple from the baby’s mouth so baby need to suck extra hard to keep it in their mouth.
The tissue of your poor nipple is put under enormous stress as it is stretched in two opposite directions at once! Maintaining suction on the nipple against the pull of gravity is also really tiring for your baby. so they may take a shorter feed before they have really drained the breast well and taken all the milk they need.
As well as your baby not taking a full feed, this also means that milk is left behind in your breast, telling your body that not all the milk you’ve made is required and allowing your milk supply to fall.
Breastfeeding pillows cause so many problems with breastfeeding that I encourage people not to purchase them. Of course, there are exceptions to any rule.
One of which is that pillows can be useful when you’re expecting a multiple birth, as they can help to position and feed two babies at once. The other is if you have very large or low breasts in which case the football hold can be useful and pillows can help with that feeding position.
But even in those cases, specialised breastfeeding pillows are not necessary, and the pillows or cushions you already have to hand will do the job perfectly well.
Breastfeeding pillows can cost anything from $25 – $170. If your wish is to breastfeed your baby, I encourage you to invest instead in antenatal breastfeeding education, membership to a breastfeeding support group, and/or a consultation with an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) – and leave the breastfeeding pillow on the shelf.
Copyright NatashaAllen-Hallyburrton, IBCLC, 2021
Like this article? This is just an example of the sort of things I discuss in my new short course for new and expectant parents. For more tips on how to make breastfeeding easier and more sustainable.