Breastfeeding Lying Down - if you are not already doing this stop reading and try it now!

Breastfeeding = Good for newborn babies
Lying down = Good for new moms
Breastfeeding + Lying down = Happy family!

If you are breastfeeding a newborn baby there is only one thing I know for certain about you - you are exhausted. So if you have not already discovered that you can breastfeed lying down stop what you are doing now and go try it. If you are tired of having to find your Boppy pillow or Brest Friend pillow or tired of arranging pillows behind your back and a footstool at your feet before you can be comfortable for the 45 minutes or more that it takes your baby to nurse then breastfeeding lying down is for you.

I figured out the breastfeeding lying down out of desperation when my son was around 2 weeks old. Like most new parents I was terrified that if I lay down and fell asleep I might roll onto my baby or something else unforeseen but catastrophic might happen. Then one night as I was literally fighting to stay awake while sitting up feeding my son it occurred to me that it was far more likely that I would fall asleep while sitting up feeding him and he might topple off my lap.

So I held him in my arms cradle style and let him nurse and slowly lay down on the bed, and lo and behold he kept eating happily while I lay down in pure bliss and soon after we were both peacefully asleep. Here is where I should insert a warning:

Warning: breastfeeding lying down may lead to co-sleeping or at the very least co-napping (see more below).

So here is what you need to do:

1. lie down on your side on your bed and pull down your bra
2. place your baby parallel to you on his side with his mouth level to your nipple and pull him close (sometimes both of your bodies end up in a bit more of a "V" position)

If your baby has figured out how to latch on the rest will be happen. No really it is that simple. Now there are some tips for newborns that might make it even easier for you.

1. I usually ended up with my lower arm perpendicular to my body above my son's head and my upper arm resting on my hips
2. a pillow behind your back makes mama even more comfortable (the body pillow I used during pregnancy worked perfectly here), a rolled receiving blanket behind your newborn's back might help keep him on his side
3. I would feed my son on one side then get up change his diaper, swaddle him, and then lay down on the other side after which we would both fall asleep

It is so easy that I was in a state of mild shock when I went to a breastfeeding support group when my son was about a month old and out of about ten moms I was the only person there who was breastfeeding lying down. Maybe it is because all the other women had those comfy rocker/gliders for breastfeeding, but what could be as comfortable as sleeping while your baby eats?

A note about breastfeeding lying down on a bed and safety. In order to keep my son in the middle of the bed instead of flipping him over me to feed on the other side I would just get up and walk around to the other side of the bed. Alternatively some mamas are able to simply lean over a little more to feed baby from both breasts while laying on the same side. As a first time mom I was always worried about my son somehow falling off the bed, but he did not roll until he was four months old and being swaddled it was pretty hard for him to move anywhere so this was a little paranoid on my part.

My baby is now ten months old and we still both enjoy breastfeeding lying down (sometimes called the "side lying position"). When he wakes up at 4am I go into his room and lie down on the twin size bed we have in there (he lies on the inside against the wall) and I feed him until he is full and sleepy again. It is also how I feed him first thing in the morning, although the rest of the day he is too rambunctious to spend very long nursing.

Advice for insomniacs - co-napping is for you!

If you were an insomniac before your baby was born chances are even the sleep deprivation of new parenthood has not made it better. I think it makes it worse. When my son was tiny every sound he made would wake me up and it would often take me thirty or forty minutes to fall asleep, by which time he was just waking up. I truly resented the people who said casually “just nap when the baby naps” as if I had overlooked this obvious idea.

However, breastfeeding lying down was my saving grace. Supposedly breastfeeding releases hormones that relax both mother and baby and make you sleepy. In my case this seemed to be true. I fell asleep easily if I just timed my naps with the breastfeeding sessions. It was heaven!

As with all blog posts, I would love to hear comments or questions from readers. I firmly believe that every baby is different and what worked for me might not work for others. The one thing my son really took to like a duck to water was breastfeeding so I would like to hear how breastfeeding lying down works for others.

Here are some good websites with resources on breastfeeding positioning and general help:

kellymom.com: latch-on and positioning help

askdrsears.com: see "side-lying" under breast feeding positions

Photos of what breastfeeding lying down looks like at mother-2-mother.com