Nursing mothers neck pain

[caif90]

Hi All,

Hoping someone can help or provide some suggestions - I'm actually due to see my GP tomorrow but am interested to know if other mums can recommend anything or give some guidance...

I'm almost 4 months pp, exclusively breastfeeding and am suffering from terrible pins and needles / numbness in my mid-upper back and round the shoulder blades. I imagine it's what they call "nursing mothers neck" where I've strained the back muscles from all the weight bearing being on the front of me 1) during pregnancy 2) while breastfeeding 3) while carrying baby freely or in the carrier.

She takes ALL her daytime naps in the carrier atm (haven't yet started to transition her to cot naps) so I'm probably wearing her around 4-6 hours a day roughly! And then feeding in between.

My husband didn't think we needed to buy a chair for my daughters room just yet since she's still sleeping beside us in our room but my "nursing" stations are:

• Bed (where I don't even have a nursing pillow so am physically holding baby while feeding at bedtime and during the night)
• A dining room chair (IKEA wooden)
• The sofa (very low and you have to really sit into the back of the sofa to be propped more upright than slumped) Again I'm holding baby with my arm strength here.

The obvious ways to improve this is by:

• Purchasing a comfortable armchair for baby's room to nurse in (we'll need one for story time anyway in due course I imagine!)
• Do you need a footstool too or is it useful to have one?
• Buy an actual nursing pillow to give me arms and back muscles a bit of a rest

The GP may well refer me to an osteo / physio as I already suffer from AxSpa (an arthritic condition) but I'd love to know if any of you mums can suggest anything else or provide some solutions 🙏🏼

TIA!

You poor thing, I'm not surprised you're struggling without even a proper pillow.
This is the one that I absolutely loved and saved my neck and back as it entirely takes the weight of baby and you can sit back and relax while feeding.
They are expensive but often pop up on marketplace etc if you're not worried about second hand.

amzn.eu/d/dbaEbmB

Personally I think if you do get a nursing chair, the ones that have a rocking foot stool as well are amazing.

Hi there, I had terrible postpartum pains so get where you're coming from. I am sure the 4-6 hours a day carrying your baby is not helping, but it won't be forever that she is napping like that. Things will pass, change, evolve, keep you on your toes! I hope things get better for you and I'm sure they will. It is a hard time.

What certainly helped me was:

• Forcing myself to visit a physiotherapist/ Osteopath/ Chiropractor (try and see what works for you, they are not all the same). I booked private because the NHS physio had a 6 month wait. I would recommend addressing it asap if you can afford it. Remembering to try to dedicate and make time to care for myself as much as possible even though it seems impossible sometimes. I had one physio that came to my house and at one point I was breastfeeding my little one on the physio's table in my living room while she was massaging my sore back!

• Breastfeeding in bed, as in, lying down and baby lying down and just resting my neck/shoulders arms as much as possible

• Buy a nursing pillow. Mine was actually some 2nd hand thing but I used it all the time and everywhere and just lay baby on it and let the pillow take the weight of baby (again trying to completely rest my shoulders/neck/arms/back)

• Pilates. Core exercises.

Hi op

my baby was EBF for 7 months before we went combi. I had a proper nursing chair with a footstool…absolutely recommend getting a footstall. Honestly the chair is brilliant and although they can be pricey well worth it.

also does your carrier has a waist strap? I originally had the baby bjorn light that onlY goes over your shoulders and it made me really achey, getting one with more support like an ergo baby will help x