Breastfeeding Pillow - Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em?

The truth is, you don’t really need a breastfeeding pillow; you could just throw a regular bed pillow on your lap and call it a day, or forgo one entirely.

But my personal opinion is that this is one of those baby items that is truly worth having. So if you’re lucky enough to have a baby shower or can buy one yourself, I highly recommend it – they’re not expensive, and they will save a lot of muscle fatigue in your arms and your back by having one to support you while your baby nurses.

You wouldn’t think that a little newborn could feel so heavy in your arms – but after a couple of weeks of breastfeeding every two to three hours, your arms will thank you for having a nursing pillow!

The Boppy is the breastfeeding pillow that I used, and I loved it. It came highly recommended by all of my mommy friends (and just about every baby book and Web site I came across), and for good reason.

Its shape is so great – it just fits so perfectly across your stomach and curves around your hips, so that your elbows have the perfect resting spot for when you’re holding your baby to nurse, and it makes for a pretty comfy way to prop up the baby when you’re not breastfeeding too!

What’s also really good about the Boppy is that it is meant to be used with a slipcover, almost all of which are 100% cotton and machine washable – so that when your little angel spits up all over the place after a nursing session (which you know she will!), you can just zip it off and throw it in the wash. (Just make sure you have at least two covers, so that you can cover it up again while the other one’s being washed.)

You can get the Boppy breastfeeding pillow already slipcovered, or you can also get one that’s “bare naked” – without a cover – and buy slipcovers in different colors and patterns (and they have a lot of really cute ones).

I actually ended up buying two Boppys, one for the living room (where I nursed my daughter most often when I was at home) and one for our upstairs bedroom, so that in my sleep-deprived state I didn’t have to remember to bring it upstairs with me when we all headed up to bed for the night.

My only complaint about the Boppy is that it’s sometimes hard to get it really close to your stomach (which is ideal), especially when you’re first learning to use it; when our daughter was newborn and we would settle in to nurse, I would often hold the baby up in the air a bit while my husband would shove the Boppy against my tummy and tilt the ends up a bit (which I found to be the most comfortable and supportive position for the pillow). Plus, in the end, it’s simply a pillow – no extra features, pockets, etc.

But for as many people that love the Boppy, there’s almost as many people singing the praises of the My Brest Friend breastfeeding pillow. These don’t get a lot of attention, and I’m not sure why – maybe just better/more prominent advertising by the Boppy.

When I went to check this one out, I was actually pretty impressed with all the extra features it had compared to the Boppy.

My Brest Friend has hanging pockets for storing a water bottle (I was always so parched during or right after nursing), or maybe a burp cloth, pacifier or anything else you wanted to keep handy. (Heck it could even hold the remote control if you wanted – oh, don’t lie, you know you also catch up on a TV show or to while you’re nursing!)

What I found most impressive is that this pillow has a strap that wraps around your back and secures with either a clasp or Velcro (depending on the model) to keep the pillow nice and tight against your body, as well s a small built-in backrest, and the pillow itself is bigger than the Boppy, which provides more surface area for your arms and the baby as she nurses.

There are also more options of the My Brest Friend pillows to fit different situations – they have a Twins Plus pillow so that moms of multiples can nurse two babies at a time, and they have a travel pillow that folds flat (how cool is that?!) so that you can fit it into your diaper bag pocket and take it with you when you’re away from home. I so wish I had known about this for the many times I nurse at my mom’s house or when we traveled abroad!

So what’s the downside to My Brest Friend breastfeeding pillow? In my opinion, the extra size of the pillow is both a blessing and a curse – I’m petite, so something this big is just unwieldy and kind of overwhelming for someone with a smaller frame like me. Plus, the shape of it is just awkward compared to the Boppy.

And like its counterparts, My Brest Friend also has a slipcover with different patterns and styles to choose from, but they don’t offer nearly as many design options as the Boppy. The selection shown online is getting better, though, so keep an eye out for more cute styles from them.

When it comes down to it, it’s really a personal preference, so my suggestion would be to think about how you plan to use a breastfeeding pillow – whether you’ll primarily be at home, or if you need one for special circumstances – and maybe even run out to store that carries one or both of them to test out how they feel before deciding on one or the other.

Good luck!

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