Help me use My Brest Friend Pillow Correctly!!

[MegBoz]

After using a Boppy pillow with DS, I decided to get a MBF for use with my now 3-week-old DD. IT SUCKS! What am I doing wrong? The product, and the reviews here on MDC, state that it's so great because it lifts the baby & you don't have to lean over & stress your back.

Um, no, not at all.

First off, I'm only 5'4" with rather long legs for my frame, so my torso is sort, but with DD on the MBF pillow, I still would have to lean over or prop another pillow UNDER the MBF to get her high enough. Thus it totally negates the whole value proposition of the product! (i.e. it's not doing for me what it claims.)

I tightened the strap around my waist with DD at the right height, and DD is only about 7# now, but she still tips back away from me - the pillow is not strong enough to keep her held up at the right height on all its own. Is it supposed to???

To make it work now at the computer, I have it propped ON TOP of the dining room table (So she's angled down towards me). 

What am I missing? I see no value to this over a Boppy or even a few regular old pillows. I'm so bummed - and I'd had such high hopes.

[trekkingirl]

I had so much trouble with that pillow. I even had DH alter it and remove the back and it still was no good. I had sore shoulders and pain going down my back! My neck also was killing me!

I switched to the EZ To Nurse Twins pillow. I found it used on craigs for $10 otherwise I think they are like $50 bucks. This pillow is awesome even though I don't have twins. HTH.

[*Devon*]

Interesting... most of my doula clients love the MBF! I find it's nice how it keeps the baby flat - with Boppy and others they tend to slide in toward Mom.

My girlfriend, who is very tall, couldn't use the EZ2Nurse because of hunching over and ended up with two stacked Boppy's. I guess different things work for everyone!

[JFTB1177]

I couldn't agree more!!! I bought the MBF pillow when I had my 2nd baby and I HATED it!!!!! It sucked, as you said! lol I ended up giving it away and went back to using my Boppy, which worked so much better. I ended up switching to nursing lying down, which is how I nurse this baby... it's so comfy! :)

[Buzzer Beater]

Also hated the MBF and bought a Boppy.

[Viola]

I used a MBF with my first baby, and I found it essential.  However, I still had to use other pillows, either behind my back, or under the MBF just because it was up so high and there was space between my lap and the bottom of the pillow.  The benefit of it for me was that it stayed around my waist and didn't slide off my lap, and it had a firm flat surface instead of a rounded or sinking one.  When I used the Boppy, it didn't work well, my baby would roll into the space between the pillow and my waist, and the entire pillow would pop off my lap.  I felt like I was constantly pulling it back on.  But once she was older, like a year or two, I would use the Boppy.

With my second baby, I had a different kind of couch, and the MBF was just too much.  The part that went around my back ended up making me uncomfortable, because I was sitting firmly against the back of the couch already.  And then there was the fact that my waist was bigger, and I had to put it up high on my waist to fit. The strap was so tight that the pillow came off of me at an angle pointing upwards, but with the kind of couch, I didn't need as much elevation.  I still felt like I needed something on the end of my knees, though, to keep the weight of the baby from pushing the edge down, although I could use a nursing stool to help raise my knees isntead.  My couch made me sit up straighter, because it was firmer and the seat was not as wide from front to back, so the Boppy worked better because it didn't sit up as high on my waist.  I would put it on kind of sideways, though, with the opening on the side.  I found that with a nursing stool really worked well.  Or I could use the My Brest Friend without doing the strap, so I did that too, in the beginning.

It won't stay level coming out from your body with the baby on it, and it isn't meant to, I don't think.  At least not with the fabric strap--I think you'd need something hard underneath and coming from the waist strap to keep it from sinking.

[nstewart]

Another MBF hater here!!  My friend bought me one because she LOVED hers but it was never comfy for me to use it.  I am tall (5'9") and she was short.  I have small breasts and she has large breasts.  So I'm not sure if that also made a difference.  I had to hunch way over to nurse DS because I couldn't lean back because the other cushion was in the way.  I also ended up getting a boppy-type pillow and now mostly nurse laying down (only way to get DS to focus on the task!!)