As it turns out, there isn’t much available for breastfeeding moms on the go who prefer to have a support of some kind for nursing. The only inflatable breastfeeding pillow I could find is still awfully big and bulky. Some gals can get away with no pillow at all, but that’s not me. Katrin is VERY long for her age, and wrangling her into position for breastfeeding when there are new things to look at is hard enough, never mind trying to hunch over awkwardly with her draped across my lap. If you have larger breasts, typically it’s even more challenging because you need one hand to hold baby and one to keep them from being smothered by your boob. I loath feeding with no support, and it’s horrible on my back, so I typically wad up any soft thing I can find to put under her head and neck if I didn’t remember to bring my normal nursing pillow (which is basically every single time, heh, because mom Brain is real).
However, when I was getting our camping gear together for this season, I came across a wonderful solution! Our inflatable backpacking pillow:
I love that it rolls up small enough to easily fit in my diaper bag. Extremely convenient for day to day, because I often end up nursing her in the back seat of my truck if our outings go longer than planned, or when we are travelling. It also proved awesome for camping, and since we take them backpacking anyway, it will be nice to not have to sit in an awkward, hunched over position to nurse her in the backcountry.
Unfortunately MEC doesn’t make this particular pillow anymore, but there are tons of other backpacking pillows that fit the bill. This one by Sea To Summit looks good. Same with the Thermarest or Sail options. Perhaps you already have one that can do double-duty now! If there’s an adventure addict parent (or expectant parent) in your life, this would make an awesome (and guaranteed unique) shower gift.
