Dear Friends:
    I enjoyed Nancy's thoughtful post about fitting. We can all agree, and be
thankful, that there is a wider variety of flange sizes for pumps. The mother
with 27mm nipples isn't comfortable with the 30mm ones nor the 24mm ones.
Fitting and measurement make a HUGE difference.

    Even so with nursing pillows. Many are of a permanent size; they might
work for some babies, The comfort depends on baby's size and also on mother's
arm length, breast-to-lap length,(or should it be nipple-to-lap length?) angle
of nipple pointing etc. etc.

    I've seen babies grow bigger than the pillow can support, and I've seen
mothers take their breast and tug it up to baby's mouth, because baby has
outgrown the pillow. I also don't like when the pillow becomes one more thing,
along with hands, breast handling, baby positioning, squirming to sit comfortably
on a sore bottom etc. etc, for an inexperienced mother to juggle.
    I don't see that she could be fitted for a nursing pillow while pregnant
as the two situations wouldn't be congruent.
    My favorite position for the inexperienced is side-lying because the
mattress holds the breast and the baby; she's lying in a comfortable sleeping
position, and can be happy there for the hour or two that a cluster of feeds will
take.
    However, there are mothers for whom side-lying is awful, as with some
ladies who have a surgical incision.
    Back to the subject of pillows. More flexible pillows are best, which is
the style of the ones that have been recalled. Why bother buying such a floppy
pillow? I have three bed pillows that are that flexible, and I daresay most
people have something like that in the house. Or a folded towel.....
    warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE
Maternal-Child Adjunct Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human Lactation
Support the WHO Code and the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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