Supportive nursing chair recommendations

I have a five week old infant, and I’ve yet to find a comfortable chair in my apartment for nursing. I have straight back dining chairs with no arms, which are not supportive enough. I have a big arm chair, but the arms aren’t in the right position for being useful breast-feeding. Mostly I nurse in bed or on the sofa in various different positions, but have yet to find the perfect solution. I often have to change positions due to plugged ducts on the bottom left side. I’d like to find a comfortable armchair, that does not necessarily need to be a rocking chair. Any advice or suggestions are welcome.

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If you feel comfortable going into the store, I would visit Tot Tank in Alameda and try out a number of their chairs. I bought my chair from there, which I loved for nursing and is still one of my favorite furniture pieces 2 years later. I have a babyletto power recliner glider but my suggestion would be to sit in a few chairs and see what feels comfortable on your back. The staff at Tot Tank was very helpful in making suggestions on how to tell if a chair is a good fit. 

I didn’t find a particular chair, although long term my glider rocker has been great, we’re going on two years nursing. At the beginning the biggest help was pillows! I finally tried a my breastfriend after only using the Boppy and found it soooo much better. They are often available for cheap or free on Craigslist or Nextdoor if you’re comfortable with something used. Hope you find a comfy position and I’ll also plug mommastrong, an amazing mom centered workout program that’s $5/month and has all kinds of short videos for exercise but also stretches specific to breastfeeding and other momma aches and pains. Sending you strength, it’s hard work!!

The answer may be a better chair (especially with needing to change positions a lot right now) or it may be a nursing pillow, if you're not using one already. That saved my back and arms so much pain with all my kids. My Breast Friends is by far my favorite as it's very firm.

I highly recommend getting a Dutailer glider. They're made in Canada and have been around forever, so they're easy to find secondhand. I'm writing this from one I bought on facebook marketplace for $50 a few months ago (ottoman included!). They're also often listed on craigslist. They're the only nursing chair I know of that both rocks and reclines at the same time, which is a feature we very much appreciate! The arm rests are perfect for nursing and the ottoman usually has a nursing stool pullout thingie (hard to describe but useful).

I was really happy with the Lansinoh travel nursing pillow.  You can either put your arm through it, or I usually propped it longways under whichever arm.  I used it on our couch, on the recliner, on airplanes, in the (parked) car, etc.  And it's machine washable!

I know this isn’t quite the reply you were looking for, but I found that the “My Brest Friend” pillow made nursing so much easier, in pretty much any chair. I also used the boppy pillow, but it wasn’t as good (for me at least). I know it will vary person to person! In terms of chair, we have a glider type chair (I think Dutailier is the brand), and it was good. The pillow just made it extra easy.

Hi there, I recently posted my nursing chair on Craigslist. For my first baby I had an IKEA Poang chair which really hurt my back because it had no lumbar support (and also no arm support). So for my second and last baby I looked around a lot and tried a lot of different chairs for comfort and finally purchased this: https://post.craigslist.org/manage/7153515839/gcd3q. Let me know if you are interested! Alison

I think the suggestions so far are great. I have a 3.5 month old now. I hated building a pillow fort in the first month and a half (particularly as I was recommended an inclined football position) but now it is much easier to breast feed on the couch with just the boppy pillow (with a firm side). A foot stool also helped. Hang in there, the first 8 weeks can be tough! 

Second the recommendation for trying out the Dutalier chairs. My perfect chair, and the one that seems to fit everyone perfectly who sits in it the Graham glider and ottoman from West Elm. You may be able to find one secondhand! Also amazing for cuddles and story time when your little one gets bigger. :)