Breastfeeding lying down

[MolliciousIntent]

I am desperate to get the hang of this because my 13wk DD is waking hourly and I'm on my knees, but I just can't get my head round it. I have v small boobs and a bad back already, which doesn't help, I cannot find a way to lie down and feed her that doesn't cause absolute agony within a minute. Any tip? Videos or resources?

Lie on your side, put your arm around to cradle her and pull her in towards your chest. If she’s wriggly some pillows can help to get her in position (though obviously don’t do this if there’s a risk of you falling asleep) 🙂

As PP said you lie on your side, arm out to the side on the bed, roll baby onto their side and support their back. You feed with the breast on the side you are lying, so lying on your left, left arm out on bed and feed from left breast

You might find lying on one side works much better. I could only feed DD lying on my left hand side for some reason, but did manage to do both boobs from that side. With the right boob I sort of folded my right arm under my head and leaned forward.

It did work very well for us once we got the hand of it as I was able to doze and felt reasonably well rested despite DD waking every hour or 2 for the last 7 months 😴 check out youtube maybe? Or is there a breastfeeding support worker in your area?

Good luck, hope you get there!

This video gave me the confidence to do it safely. I was so terrified to do it but this identified all the pitfalls (e.g never having the towel directly behind baby's head) good luck!

Meant to say, I have very small breasts (even when bf'ing) and this worked for me!

When ds was a newborn...(don't really remember what age he got too big) I would lie on my back and ds would lie across my chest face down and bf on top of me. Having said that, Ds could have latched on hanging from one toe. Dd was a little more difficult (luckily she was my second so kind of had the hang of it by then).

I used to put a pillow behind my back to support me as otherwise I found myself really tensing up and it hurt!

Get yourself comfy first with pillows etc. I used my pregnancy pillow behind my back and up and under my head. Then bring baby to you lying sideways as PP have said. The best analogy I heard (for breastfeeding in general) was to make sure they were across you like a plaster.

I used to put baby on his back, get myself comfy on my side, then roll him towards me so he could latch. For some reason he didn't like this position on the right, but left was totally fine. Just make sure the little arm is tucked safely between you two rather than it being lain on.

As he got bigger he could do it without the need to roll - he latched from his back and had a good feed.

Loads of good tips on this thread. Just watch out that baby (and you!) don't get lazy with the latch. I did (schoolgirl mistake) and ended up with a bleb and then thrush. It put a bit of a downer on the end of our bfing journey. I wish i'd got the hang of lying down feeding earlier - i'd get DD from the cot and bring her into bed with me for the first morning feed when we both first woke up . So lovely! 😊