Back pain while breast feeding

[furryleopard]

My little one is 3 weeks old and I am breast feeding. However I'm finding it is killing my back, I know it's because I'm hunching forward, especially when sat on the bed at night. I can do it for small periods but when she wants to do an epic feed I'm in agony after 20 minutes or so.

I have big boobs that seem to still be growing so I'm only really comfortably able to feed her rugby underarm style. I can't seem to do cradle hold at all, I can do it laying down but I fall asleep and not happy co-sleeping in our tiny bed. If she's too high up on pillows I can't get her to latch so I'm ending up putting her lower and hunching. Pillows behind me don't seem to help.

I think it didn't hurt at first as I was still taking painkillers for my section. But now it is agony!

Help! What can I do to support my back more?

I struggled with back pain from feeding too, also had a C-section and I think this doesn't help with positioning in terms of lacking tummy muscles. Feeds were also very long until we properly got the hang of latch etc around 6 weeks. I did have backache from quite early on but think it would have been much worse without the section painkillers.
I found I had to experiment a lot until I found the right combination of foot rest and pillows to position properly and I had to be rigorous about making sure I got myself propped properly every feed. I never fed in bed (until we mastered lying down feeding when he was around 4 months) but had a dining type chair in the bedroom to sit and feed on. I used various things as footrests, the printer was exactly the right height, I also had a cardboard box that was the right height for the feet.
I found where I needed to sit changed as he got bigger, at some points I found a chair with arms was good, other times it wasn't.
Sorry this isn't a magic answer but I hope you get it sorted - it really isn't what you need in the early weeks with a new baby and recovering from surgery.

Have you tried biological nursing? AKA laid back feeding. Have a look on google or speak to a breast feeding counsellor if one available. Now I'm not sure if this would be suitable for you considering the c section but I too found that I was hunching over ds, also my let down seems to be quite fast which was drowning him a bit! I was advised to try this and it has made things so much easier for us, much more comfortable for me and also my flow is slowed as it has to go against gravity. Also leaves one hand free for reading, drinking tea etc, I'm currently feeding ds and have room on my lap for laptop and a free hand, I've even managed some online banking and shopping! Ok so now I'm just boasting I hope this is something that could work for you too.

Thank you both, it's nice to know it's not just me encountering this problem! I'd not heard of laid back feeding but it is how I naturally seem to be holding DD when she is cuddling so it might work, I will give it a bash tomorrow when my husband is home from work to help! I will also nip to the local bf cafe to pick up some tips on supporting my back.