The Best Nursing Pillows

I spoke to and corresponded with four lactation consultants while researching this guide. I interviewed Susan Burger, PhD, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) with a practice in New York City, and Jenn Sullivan, a Certified Breastfeeding Counselor and owner of Waddle n Swaddle, a baby-gear store and parenting resource center that hosts breastfeeding classes in New York’s Hudson Valley. I also corresponded by email with Tipper Gallagher, an IBCLC based in Minneapolis who runs a breastfeeding information blog called The Boob Geek, and Angela Horman, a registered nurse and IBCLC in Baltimore.

I read (PDF) several studies on breastfeeding postures and positioning, and noted opinions about nursing pillows posted by parents on active Facebook groups dedicated to breastfeeding education and support.

I’m the research editor for Wirecutter, and have written guides on pumping bras and pregnancy pillows, among others. I’m also a mom with three kids under five, including a nursing baby, who was about 8 months old when I researched and wrote this guide. With two short breaks, I’ve been breastfeeding for about four years straight. I’ve used multiple nursing pillows, have been to lactation consultants, and have nursed in most positions and places imaginable.

The lactation consultants we spoke to agreed that you don’t need a nursing pillow to successfully breastfeed a baby. Some breastfeeding mothers find nursing pillows very helpful, especially during the early days; for others, they’re unnecessary or even a hindrance. There are many comfortable and effective positions and postures you can use for breastfeeding, with and without pillows. Which positions work best for you and your baby may take time and practice to discover, and are likely to change as your baby grows. Breastfeeding resources like KellyMom, group classes or support groups like those run through La Leche League, or meeting with a lactation consultant can help you decide whether you want a nursing pillow or not.

Nursing pillows tend to be best suited to breastfeeding while you’re sitting upright or partly reclined, such as on a couch, on the floor, in an armchair, or propped up in bed. In these positions, the nursing pillow can help raise your baby up to your breasts so you don’t hunch over, provide a stable platform for your baby to lie on, offset some of your baby’s weight, support your arms or elbows, and help keep one or both of your hands free while breastfeeding.

“Nursing pillows can be very helpful to position a newborn at the height of mom’s breasts,” lactation consultant Angela Horman told us. Susan Burger agreed, pointing out that a nursing pillow can help you avoid having to hunch over to reach your baby: “Most of the reason for using the pillow is to be able to get into a comfortable position where you are leaning back a bit,” Burger told us. “Leaning back is typically better for your back, so you want to be able to lean back and relax while you feed your baby.”

Based on our conversations with lactation consultants and breastfeeding mothers, we found that nursing pillows tend to be most heavily used during the newborn phase, with many mothers saying they stopped using a dedicated pillow as often when their babies were about 5 months old. But pillows can be as helpful in supporting a chunky 1-year-old as a wriggling newborn. (We tested the pillows featured in this guide with babies ranging from 7 weeks to 14 months old).

No one pillow will be right for everyone. In addition to different body shapes and sizes, some nursing pillows may be better suited for younger babies and others for older babies. Anecdotally, we’ve found that many moms end up using more than one type of nursing pillows during the time they breastfeed.

You can also try using pillows you have around the house. “Don’t get too invested in seeking out the one right pillow. You can often make do with pillows you have,” said Burger, who told us she encourages parents to experiment with pillows, rolled up receiving blankets, and other cushions to help with support and positioning.

It’s important to know that none of the pillows featured in this guide—or any other types of pillows—are intended for use as an infant sleep surface, and that they can pose a suffocation hazard. (This Consumer Reports article contains more information on the risks, as well as details about the September 2021 recall of Boppy loungers.) Infants should be placed to sleep on their backs on a firm, flat surface, such as in a crib, bassinet, or playard.

After interviewing our experts, reviewing studies on breastfeeding postures and positioning, talking with parents on our staff who have breastfed babies, and reading dozens of discussions on message boards and Facebook groups related to breastfeeding, we determined a good nursing pillow should be:

Ergonomic: The pillow should raise your baby to where your breasts naturally fall when you sit comfortably. How well a pillow works for you and your baby will depend, in part, in how it fits your body, the distance between your breasts and your lap, and how big your baby is. Burger told us that if you have to hunch over, the pillow sits too low for your body; if you have to lift your breast, it’s too high. Of breastfeeding with a pillow, Horman told us: “When mom is positioned well, there should be no strain on her shoulders, upper back, arms, or abdominal muscles.”

Close-fitting: To breastfeed effectively, regardless of the position, your baby should be snuggled closely to you. “Your baby should be plastered to your body,” Burger says. This is especially important for newborns, as some research has shown that pressure on points along the abdomen may help give tiny babies better control over their movements and trigger reflexes to breastfeed. If the nursing pillow causes your baby to go “belly up” or roll away from you, or creates a gap or barrier between you and your baby, it’s not a good design or fit.

Stable: You may lay your baby directly on the pillow, or cradle her and rest your arms on the pillow. Either way, the pillow should provide a relatively flat, stable surface that’s soft but not so sinky that your baby droops or slips.

Versatile and easy to use: A nursing pillow shouldn’t lock you into a single position, and it shouldn’t be complicated to figure out how to use. Many nursing pillows can also be used to prop a baby up to sit, for tummy time, or as a lounging or support pillow you can continue to use long after you stop breastfeeding.

In addition, a nursing pillow’s cover should ideally be:

Soft: The pillow will be up against both your and your baby’s exposed skin. No part of the pillow should feel scratchy or rough, too heavy or hot.

Durable and easy to clean: From spit up to diaper leaks, a nursing pillow will see its share of bodily fluids during normal use, and needs to be easy to clean. The cover should be simple to remove, machine wash and dry, and put back on.

Attractive: If you use a nursing pillow regularly, it’ll be a fixture on your lap and around your house for months or (if used with multiple kids) years. In describing a nursing pillow she owned and whose cover she disliked, one mom told us: “Why am I staring at this horrible pastel green dotted thing for hours a day?” The cover should come in at least a modest variety of colors and simple patterns to please a broad range of tastes.

We started by making a list of every nursing pillow we found find on Amazon, BuyBuy Baby, Babies“R”Us, and other retailers, ending up with 17 pillows. We found nursing pillows in many shapes and sizes, but they fell into two general categories:

Lap nursing pillows: Pillows that lay relatively flat across your lap, and may curve or angle to hug the body. Some are shaped like a C, U, or L. They’re simple to put on and adjust, but can slip or move if you change positions. Some lap nursing pillows can double as lounging cushions or floor props for your baby.

Belted nursing pillows: Pillows that wrap around the body and attach with a belt. These pillows take a bit more work to put on, but remain in place, even if you move or stand up. These pillows can provide extra stability and sometimes back support when compared with non-belted pillows. Anecdotally, we found that more mothers use this type of pillow with newborns and young infants than with older, bigger babies.

Most pillows we found are filled with polyester fiber (similar to bed pillows); other materials include foam and buckwheat hulls. We found pillows with covers made from cotton, polyester, and polyester blends, in woven fabrics (similar to bedsheets), canvas, terry cloth, fleece, and plush.

We also found a few pillows that have adjustable cushions or removable padding to raise the baby to different levels, but these don’t appear to be as popular as the types listed above.

We focused our research and testing on pillows designed for nursing one baby at a time. Some of the brands we considered and tested make pillows for nursing twins simultaneously. We didn’t test these, but if you’re having twins, we suggest talking with a lactation consultant for pillow recommendations.

We further narrowed our list by focusing on pillows that had the highest star rating and number of user reviews on Amazon. This led us to nine pillows we decided to test:

Blessed Nest Nesting Pillow

My Brest Friend Deluxe

Boppy Best Latch

Boppy Luxe

Luna Lullaby Bosom Baby

Leachco Cuddle-U

One-Z Nursing Pillow

Nursit Basic Nursing Pillow

Dr. Brown’s Gia Pillow

We tested these nine pillows in three group sessions with a total of 12 breastfeeding moms and their babies, and one volunteer who was pregnant with her first child. The groups included new mothers and those who had breastfed multiple babies. The babies ranged in age from 7 weeks to 14 months old. Most of the participants had used nursing pillows before, but others had used bed pillows or no pillows.

We covered brand names and logos with masking tape, and each pillow was assigned a letter A through H. No information about the pillows’ materials or prices was shared with participants during the session. The groups were small—just three to six volunteers in each group—and held in people’s homes, with participants sitting on couches, chairs, and the floor. The volunteers examined each pillow, trying them on, feeling the fabric, and evaluating the firmness, shape, and fill. Depending on the babies’ cooperation, they also breastfed their babies on each pillow, and used some of them for tummy time and lounging. As the evaluations took place, the volunteers shared and discussed their feedback. Afterward, each volunteer completed a questionnaire that asked them to choose their two favorite and two least favorite pillows, and to explain why.

We reviewed the feedback from our testing sessions, considered recommendations from lactation consultants, and analyzed user reviews for the pillows on Amazon and other retailers to make our picks.

The Luna Lullaby Bosom Baby Nursing Pillow was the best liked nursing pillow among our testers due to its ample, supportive surface, simple and versatile design, and supersoft cover. The L-shaped pillow has a broader surface than most of the other pillows we tried, ideal for positioning and supporting a baby, but isn’t unwieldy or overly large. Our testers liked the Luna Lullaby’s simple design, which makes it easy to position. It isn’t the firmest or most body-hugging pillow we tested, so it won’t be the best choice if you want very structured support and stability for you and your baby. However, the cushy but supportive fill makes the pillow one of the most versatile, and good for breastfeeding as well as tummy time for your baby and lounging for you. The plush cover is arguably the softest of any pillow we tried, and the pillow comes in the widest variety of colors and prints.

Eight of our 12 breastfeeding testers selected the Luna Lullaby as one of their two favorites, which made it the best liked pillow overall. Because the Luna Lullaby is L-shaped, rather than C- or U-shaped like other lap pillows we tested, it provides a notably broader surface on which the baby can lie. This makes it more versatile for positioning, as you can rotate the pillow to either side, or keep it centered on your body. Several testers pointed out the benefits of the Luna Lullaby’s broad, relatively wide shape. “[It] has a big, wide, flat surface. I like that to let him chill,” said the mother of a 2-month-old.

The Luna Lullaby’s shape and fill also make it the most versatile pillow we tested, working as well as a prop for tummy time or an extra lounging pillow as it does for breastfeeding. The fill strikes the right balance of being both supportive and cushy. One of our staffers who used the Luna Lullaby to breastfeed her two children said she still uses it as a throw pillow on her couch. Though many of the pillows we tested have covers that zip on and off, the Luna Lullaby simply uses an extra fold of fabric to keep the cover closed, meaning the pillow has absolutely no hardware to cause even the slightest discomfort.

The Luna Lullaby has one of the softest covers of any pillow we tested, with a number of testers describing it as “cozy.” The plush polyester material—a fabric known as “minky,” for its similarity to the supersoft fur—is a common material for baby blankets, and feels almost luxurious. It comes in the widest range of colors and patterns of any pillow we tested, extending beyond the usual baby pastels to include bolder hues (turquoise, fuschia), neutrals (slate, chocolate), and over a dozen different patterns (paisley, giraffe, and geometric prints, among others). There are more patterns and extra covers available at the company’s own website than on Amazon.

Our pick: Long-term test notes

Wirecutter editor Jennifer Hunter, who did some additional testing of the Luna after her daughter was born, said, “This pillow is really lightweight so it’s easy to move around the house, but I actually don’t love the shape. I mostly breastfeed in the football hold, so having an L-shaped pillow means that one of the arms needs to go behind my back, which is a little uncomfortable. I did have a dog pee incident, and I was able to wash both the cover and insert in my regular washer, which was key.” Jennifer found the Luna more useful for giving support to her daughter when she was beginning to sit up: “The curve is great for that.”

Some of our testers felt the Luna Lullaby doesn’t offer enough structure and support: “With a newborn, it would be difficult to use and keep baby in a good position,” a tester with an 11-month-old said. Another tester, who has a 10-month-old, said the pillow moved away from her too easily. “This is a couch pillow. It doesn’t give me the all-around support I need,” said the mother of a 4-month-old. Though most of our testers liked the Luna Lullaby’s shape and softness, and felt it was adequately supportive and secure for breastfeeding, if you want a more secure, stable pillow, you may want to try the belted My Brest Friend, which has a very firm surface and a belt that keeps it in place, or the Boppy, which feels a bit firmer than the Luna Lullaby and has a C-shape design that helps it hug the body more closely.

Though most of our testers preferred the Luna Lullaby, the Boppy nursing pillow (in either the Luxe or Classic version) is a good choice if you’re looking for a closer fitting, more structured pillow. Both the Boppy Classic and Boppy Luxe have the same inner pillow. We chose to test the Luxe, which has a double-sided plush and cotton/polyester cover, with decorative piping and cute animal appliques; the Classic’s cover is a simpler woven cotton/polyester, and less expensive. All Boppy covers are interchangeable.

Our testers were divided on the Boppy, with an equal number saying they liked and disliked the pillow. But it’s extremely popular and highly rated on Amazon (for many people, “Boppy” is synonymous with nursing pillow, and we found that many people have never tried another type). Like the Luna Lullaby, the Boppy is soft but adequately supportive. It’s C-shaped, and that curved design helps the Boppy hug the body better than the Luna Lullaby: “It stays on better because it has that little back hook,” one tester remarked, referring to the way the Boppy wrapped around her back. But compared with the L-shaped Luna Lullaby, the more structured, close-fitting Boppy has less usable surface area for positioning the baby. Similar to the Luna Lullaby, the Boppy works well for tummy time, but the C shape makes it awkward as a couch or bed pillow, so it’s less versatile overall.

The Boppy Luxe has a two-sided cover, offering both plush and woven cotton-polyester surfaces. The plush side is soft but not quite as luxurious as the Luna Lullaby; the woven side feels like inexpensive bed sheets, neither scratchy nor particularly soft. The Boppy Luxe pillow insert is compatible with all of Boppy’s covers, including the basic cotton-polyester covers on the Boppy Classic, which are less expensive than the Luna Lullaby’s replacement covers; this may make it easier to purchase multiple covers as backups.

In September 2021, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and The Boppy Company issued a recall of a different Boppy product: the Newborn Lounger. Though none of the pillows in this guide were included in the recall and the recalled pillow has a different design, nursing pillows have also been linked to infant suffocation deaths and are never a safe place for an infant to sleep. A baby who falls asleep while breastfeeding should be moved to a firm, flat surface, like that in a crib or bassinet.

If you need an extremely stable, secure, and easy to use pillow that stays in place even if you move around or stand up, we recommend the belted My Brest Friend Deluxe. It offers the most foolproof setup of any pillow we tried, and provides a firmer, more stable surface for a baby to rest on than other belted options. It’s the only one of our picks that has a pocket, and is one of the only pillows we tried that has padding for back support. It’s also recommended specifically by some lactation consultants, and is one of the most popular and highly rated nursing pillows on Amazon. But it’s not versatile like the other pillows we recommend (you can’t do much with it besides use it to breastfeed), and isn’t well-suited to nursing older babies. The polyester fleece cover isn’t as soft or nice as the covers of either the Luna Lullaby Bosom Baby or Blessed Nest Nesting Pillow, either.

Not everyone needs a belted nursing pillow—the majority of the mothers in our testing group said they preferred non-belted pillows like our other picks. But belted pillows are extra secure and stable, which can be helpful in cases where latching your baby feels like executing a complex choreography of movements, or when you simply want a pillow with no learning curve. Several of the lactation consultants we spoke to said they recommend the My Brest Friend for this reason: “It has the lowest rate of error for a mom home alone trying to negotiate the pillow,” Jenn Sullivan said.

The My Brest Friend is made from firm, flat foam with two contoured bumps meant to slightly elevate the baby’s head. This provides a more stable infant surface than the other belted options we tested, which are softer. Horman told us that the My Brest Friend is a good example of a “firm, flat pillow that stays close to mom’s body” and that can’t slip away or drop down, which makes it easier for many moms to achieve a good latch and breastfeed comfortably. Because the pillow is attached to you, if you lean back, turn, or even stand up, the pillow will stay in place. This means you can change positions, get up to grab something, or even move to a different room with your baby still on the pillow without worrying about the pillow slipping off or having to reposition it (keep a firm hand on your baby and the pillow, of course, when moving around). Some women find that the My Brest Friend is also more appropriate for using while sitting at a narrower chair without arm support—like at the kitchen or dining table—because it can stay up on its own. Several of our testers noted that they felt stable and confident with the My Brest Friend: “It feels secure on me. I can move around with it,” a mom of a 5-month-old said.

The adjustable belt, which you can tighten or loosen via Velcro panels on the pillow, makes it easier to position this pillow at a specific point on your torso than non-belted options. A tester with a newborn noted that it “offered lots of support and was a great height for me.”

The My Brest Friend has a small cushion on the belt, which helps support your lower back. It’s also the only pillow we’ve found that has a pocket, which is a thoughtful feature and useful for holding a phone, ointment, or snacks.

The My Brest Friend isn’t versatile like the Luna Lullaby or Blessed Nest Nesting Pillow—you’re unlikely to use it as a lounging pillow or even a prop for tummy time. The cover material, a fleece-y polyester, is soft enough, but not particularly nice (several testers noted that it felt “cheap”), and the covers come in a basic but boring set of pastels and simple patterns.

The My Brest Friend also comes in an Original model, which uses the same inner pillow as the My Brest Friend Deluxe, but has a woven cotton cover that isn’t as soft or durable as the Deluxe’s fleece cover, and relies on a buckle instead of Velcro panels to adjust the belt, which makes it harder to unclasp one-handed. The Original is only a few dollars cheaper, so we think the Deluxe is the better choice.

For a versatile and adjustable pillow with a more stylish, sophisticated cover, we recommend the Blessed Nest Nesting Pillow. Due to its buckwheat hull fill, the Nesting Pillow is the only pillow we tested that is moldable, conforming to your body and your baby’s. The sturdy cotton canvas and terry cloth cover comes in a design and color palette that is more sophisticated than its competition’s. Some people will also like that the Nesting Pillow’s fill and textiles are certified organic. But this pillow is heavier and slightly more difficult to clean than our main pick and runner-up, and is also the most expensive pillow we tested.

Our testers were surprised by how much they liked the Nesting Pillow’s uncommon fill. Modeled after traditional Japanese buckwheat pillows, the Nesting Pillow feels a bit like a bean bag, with a firm, pleasingly textured surface. The buckwheat hulls mold to your body and your baby, which our testers found both comfortable and stable. “I like the way it conforms to your lap,” a tester with a 1-month-old said. “I like that it feels heavy and like it’s not going anywhere,” a mom of a 4-month-old commented.

The Nesting Pillow is the only pillow we tested that has moldable, adjustable fill. Somewhat similar to shredded memory foam, you can scoop and push the fill to make one part of the pillow thicker and loftier (for example, to support your baby’s head), and another area flatter. This lets you customize the shape and angle of the pillow surface, which some testers found gave them more control when positioning their baby. You can also shift the fill and fold the excess fabric to make the entire pillow smaller (as shown in the product’s instructions).

Many of our testers commented that the Nesting Pillow is more versatile than the other pillows they tried, noting that it would work well with newborns and older babies, and also for non-breastfeeding uses. “You could use it forever,” said a mom of an 11-month-old, musing that she could use it for back support or between her legs while sleeping. (We also found that it lifts and nestles a laptop almost as cozily as a suckling infant.)

The Nesting Pillow’s cotton cover isn’t as plush as the Luna Lullaby’s. The top (where the baby rests) is made of a knit cotton terry cloth, which has a slightly grippy texture; the sides are made from soft, brushed cotton canvas. The color palette (teal, ochre, rose, chocolate) and patterns (batik, geometric, floral) feel more like living room decor than nursery gear, which adds to its versatility. Some people may appreciate that the buckwheat fill and cover material are certified organic to the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), and that both the pillow and cover are made in the United States, which is not true of any of our other picks.

The biggest complaint we heard from our testers was about the Nesting Pillow’s weight. At 5½ pounds, it’s by far the heaviest pillow we tested. Although many of our testers liked the pillow’s heft, saying it felt secure and stable, others noted that it could be cumbersome. The mother of a 7-week-old said the pillow “could be amazing if it wasn’t so heavy”; the mother of an 11-month-old noted that a new mother might find it a strain to lug the heavy pillow around while recovering from childbirth. Another said that though she liked how the pillow felt, it would likely get hot and heavy after long periods of time—for example, if her baby fell asleep while breastfeeding.

The Nesting Pillow is more complicated to clean than the other pillows we recommend, as the buckwheat fill requires some special handling (see “Care and maintenance” below). It’s also by far the most expensive pillow we tested.

Also-great pick: Long-term test notes

Wirecutter editor Jennifer Hunter, who has been using the Blessed Nest for six months at the time of this writing, said, “I love the crescent shape of this pillow and how moldable it is. If we’re in an awkward position, it’s easy to smush some buckwheat fill into a shape that will support my daughter’s head. Essentially, its moldability prevents me from having to lift and reposition her if we get it wrong, I can usually just adjust the pillow a bit. I also like the fabric of the cover—it feels substantial and a little more textured than the Luna, which seems to just hold Violet on it a little better. I also like the weight of it, as long as I don’t need to move it around the house. It feels nice and substantial—like a sandbag, in a good way. What I don’t like is that the insert can’t be washed. I really think anything that a baby is going to use should be able to be easily cleaned since, as we all know, they tend to spew when you least expect it."

Our testers were divided on the One-Z Nursing Pillow, a belted pillow with a cushy surface, a velvety plush cover and an ample back support cushion. One tester noted that the One-Z was “wonderfully cozy” but also “really big, cumbersome and tricky.” Several testers remarked that they appreciate the pillow’s generous back support (“I could Netflix with this,” the mother of an 11-month-old said), but found the overall size and loftiness too much to handle. Our testers also thought the belt system was more complicated than those on other pillows, noting that they couldn’t manage it one-handed.

The Boppy Best Latch is a C-shaped belted pillow that resembles a lap desk, according to one of our testers. The Best Latch has two different surfaces: a firm and flat foam side with a plush cover for newborns (the lapdesk-like side), and a softer, fiber fill side with a woven cover for older babies (shown above). Our testers found neither side got the firmness quite right. “One side is too soft. The other side is too firm,” a mom of a 5-month-old commented. Another, the mother of a 10-month-old, said when the softer side was up, the firmer side felt uncomfortable against her legs.

Our testers were unenthusiastic about the Dr. Brown’s Gia Pillow, which got no “favorite” votes. The pillow has a unique shape, similar to a comma or half of a ying-and-yang symbol. The larger, rounder part is meant to support the baby’s head and angle her body upward toward your breast, while the baby’s lower body rests on the pillow’s tail. But our testers noted that the asymmetric shape means you have to flip the entire pillow over if you want to nurse on the other breast, a hassle they didn’t want to deal with.

The inexpensive Nursit Basic Nursing Pillow is the only pillow we tried that doesn’t have a removable cover, though the pillow itself is machine washable. Our testers found it overstuffed, too firm, and too narrow.

The Leachco Cuddle-U is a U-shaped lap pillow with a detachable harness that allows the pillow to double as a cushiony baby seat. None of our testers named the Cuddle-U as a favorite. Some found it difficult to put on compared with our pick, felt it didn’t offer enough support, or noted that the outer seam is scratchy.

We didn’t test the Infantino Elevate pillow, which looks sort of like an upholstered book, with flippable pillows that let you raise and angle your baby to different levels. The Infantino has fewer user reviews and a lower star rating on Amazon than other pillows we considered. We think parents are better off using a flatter, more stable pillow and adding small pillows when needed to elevate or angle the baby.

We also didn’t test the Leachco Natural Boost, another angled pillow, or the Leachco Natural Basic, because they have lower star ratings than the pillows we tested.

We didn’t test the Ergobaby Natural Curve because it’s not as popular or highly rated as other pillows we considered, and the sloped design offers less versatility; we eliminated the basic Nursing Pillow because it’s smaller than our main picks; and we didn’t test nursing pillows designed for twins, including the My Brest Friend Twin Plus or the Twin Z.

The Luna Lullaby and Boppy pillows and covers can be washed separately on a delicate cycle and dried on low heat.

The cover of the My Brest Friend is machine washable, but the foam pillow insert is spot clean only.

The cover of the Blessed Nest is machine washable. The pillow is spot clean only, though it can go in the dryer. Although the pillow can withstand some wetness (i.e., from breast milk, spit-up, pee, or other fluids and spills), the company says to be careful not to submerge the pillow in water, as prolonged soaking can make the buckwheat hulls turn into oatmeal. The terry cloth and canvas cover should help keep the pillow protected from spills, but if your pillow does get wet, remove the cover and put the pillow in the dryer right away.