Babies on their tummies have a lot of head control, making the laid back position comfortable for mom and baby!
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Lay back and get comfy!
We are so used to seeing babies on their backs - while being held, while feeding and while laying down to sleep. Because of this many parents are often taught nursing positions that place a baby on their back, or often below a parent.
This often makes the baby feel like they are falling away from the person they most want to be next to. A baby that feels like they are unstable will do many things that make latch harder - flailing their arms, “breast boxing”, crying, head bopping, shaking their head back and forth, kicking their legs, arching away, and so much more. Sometimes people are told that their baby “doesn’t want to feed” because they are pushing or arching away. This is not true - babies are designed to be able to feed, it’s our approach that often makes it hard for them. The baby that is flailing is a baby that is desperately trying to use their instincts to feed. Very often they grab the nipple in a desperate attempt to hold on - ouch!
For the parent, positions that have them using all of their strength to hold up the baby, or place them where they are leaning over the baby, puts strain on their neck, shoulders, arms and back.
Because of this, many nursing positions as they are commonly taught can be challenging and uncomfortable. That being said, if they are well supported there are a wide variety of nursing positions that can be wonderful (the link is for my page devoted to various nursing positions - cradle, cross-cradle, football/rugby, koala/straddle, side lying and more).
Laid back feeding -
the “training wheels” of breastfeeding
(That being said you may like it so much you continue to use it for a long time to come!).
Babies are hard wired to be tummy down - facing/leaning in to you. In this position babies have more head and hand control, can tap into all of their newborn feeding instincts and reflexes, and their jaw/tongue is more forward - helping get a deeper latch. And, for you - it’s usually more comfortable if you can lean back (and not have pillows to wrestle!).
Here are my favorite resources for Laid Back feeding (also called Biological Nurturing or Natural Breastfeeding)
A wonderful article with the eye-popping title "Many Moms Have Been Taught to Breastfeed Incorrectly". And, from the same people who wrote this article
a video on laid back feeding (it’s about 35 min, so if you are short on time, check out these clips from that video on youTube.
A lovely video by Global Health Media called “Breastfeeding in the First Hours” - showing the breast crawl - babies self-latching while laying tummy down on top of their parent in the laid-back position. The breast crawl is usually shown right after birth, but it can be used anytime in the first weeks/months!