For many new mothers, breastfeeding is a bonding experience between them and their child. It’s also been shown to be a really effective way of ensuring that your child gets all of the nutrients that they need to support them as they grow older.
Although it’s often depicted on television as being an easy and natural experience, the truth is that breastfeeding is hard. One of the things that makes it so difficult is that after a while it can start to cause pain in the neck and lower back. Luckily, there are some things that you can do to address this.
Reclining can reduce neck discomfort
Eye contact while breastfeeding is an important way to encourage bonding, and to ensure that your child associates you with feeding.
Keeping eye contact while sitting up straight means that you have to crane your neck, which can cause neck pain. One way around this is to feed while reclining to twenty or thirty degrees. This way you can keep eye contact, and not have to crane your neck quite so much.
Pay attention to posture
A simple thing that you can do to protect your back while nursing is to pay attention to your posture. Ensure that your lower back is properly supported at all times, and make sure that you aren’t slouching.
You can also prop your baby up on a pillow in order to bring them closer to you, which will prevent you from having to lean over quite so much.
Walking while feeding
If you can, it’s a good idea to get up and walk around every so often while you are breastfeeding. This will help to reduce the pressure on your spine, which will help to protect it and stop you from experiencing lower back pain.
Regular exercise is really important for breastfeeding mothers. Exercise will actually mean that you have more energy, which is really important particularly when you are functioning on a lot less sleep than you are used to! Regular exercise will also help to improve your mood, and it will increase your potential for bonding with your child.
Support while feeding at night
When you are feeding at night, if possible, it’s a good idea to get up out of bed and into a chair with good back support.
If this seems absolutely impossible through the haze of exhaustion that comes with being woken up at 3am, then you can protect your back by properly supporting yourself while you feed in bed with a suitable pillow from Husband Pillow.
Back stretches
You can help to keep your back healthy and strong by making a point of stretching regularly. The Williams Flexion Exercises can really help to improve lower back mobility and decrease lower back pain.
Always check with your physician before starting any new exercise program, particularly if you have recently given birth, as these might not be appropriate. If not though, your physician should be able to recommend some exercises that you can do that will help to protect your back while you breastfeed.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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