The right nursing pillow will help support a breastfeeding baby, making nursing more comfortable for parents and babies alike.
After a new round of testing, in 2024, we continue to recommend the Luna Lullaby Nursing Pillow and the Blessed Nest Nesting Pillow, and we’ve added the Boppy Best Latch Nursing Pillow and My Brest Friend Twin & Plus Nursing Pillow to our lineup.
Who this is for
A newborn baby needs to eat 10 to 12 times a day, or roughly every two to three hours. Providing nonstop nourishment takes a lot of work, and it can put strain on a caregiver’s body, whether they’re breastfeeding or bottlefeeding. As babies grow, their feeding frequency may decrease, but as they grow heavier (and more wiggly), a nursing pillow can help support them in a comfortable position for the duration of mealtime.
The proper fit of a nursing pillow is largely dependent on the length of the wearer’s torso, their size, how large their breasts are, how much support they want in a pillow, and what works well for their baby. Some parents may even use different nursing pillows for different feeding scenarios, or they may switch things up as their babies grow.
1.The best nursing pillow for first-time parents: Boppy Best Latch Nursing Pillow
This pillow has two distinct sides (a firm one for newborns and a softer one for older infants), so it’s the best at adapting to evolving needs. And it has an adjustable waist strap to keep the pillow snug to your body.
The Boppy Best Latch Nursing Pillow impressed our panel with its versatility, and it immediately replaced one mom’s loyalty toward the My Brest Friend Deluxe Nursing Pillow (a previous pick in this guide). The Boppy Best pillow has two distinct sides, an adjustable belt, and a surface area that can cradle a baby comfortably (without making the pillow too cumbersome to hold). It’s intuitive enough to use even on day one of breastfeeding.
The newborn side is better than that of the competition. Like the My Brest Friend Deluxe, the Boppy Best Latch has a firm, flat side, which is useful for supporting a newborn when you need them secured safely in front of you while you use both hands to feed. It improves upon that design with a raised outer edge, to keep the baby from tipping off your lap while you adjust your position.
2.The best nursing pillow for a wide range of breastfeeding holds: Luna Lullaby Nursing Pillow
This pillow’s flexibility and large boomerang shape make it helpful for any body type. It can also double as a pregnancy pillow.
The L-shaped, oversize Luna Lullaby Nursing Pillow is well loved because of its versatile design, soft cover, and ample surface area. It’s been a longtime pick in this guide, and though some of our testers found it was larger than they preferred, others appreciated that people with larger bodies could use it easily.
It’s cozy. This pillow comes in three-dozen colors and patterns, and it has a minky fabric, similar to the type commonly used for baby blankets. It’s an incredibly soft pillow that feels gentle and silky against tender skin.
3.The best nursing pillow for breastfeeding pros: Blessed Nest Nesting Pillow
This pillow is filled with buckwheat hulls, which allow it to mold into different supportive shapes. It’s heavier in the lap than any of the other pillows we recommend, and it’s the least baby-looking of the bunch.
The elongated, quarter-moon-shaped Blessed Nest Nesting Pillow is unique because of buckwheat hulls, which give it weight and transformability. It can be molded into a more horizontally slanted or full shape, depending on your baby’s size or your nursing hold needs (not unlike a beanbag shifting weight). And it looks stylish while doing so.
The buckwheat hull filling creates a satisfyingly solid base. The pillow isn’t overfilled—if anything, it feels slightly underfilled when you pick it up. But that creates enough space so the pyramid-shaped hulls can interlock to form a shape, settle in tight to a breastfeeder’s body, and be manipulated around where you need support the most. The pillow is supportive of a baby’s back and doesn’t shift around once they are placed there. It is sturdy in a way that is pleasing to use; this thing will not be knocked off a lap by an errant lurch. At 26 inches wide, 16 inches deep, and roughly 5 inches high, the Blessed Nest does this shape well.
4.The best nursing pillow for feeding two babies at once: My Brest Friend Twin & Plus Nursing Pillow
This pillow is firm, with a supportive backrest and a waist strap that won’t budge—ideal for feeding two babies simultaneously.
The My Brest Friend Twin & Plus Nursing Pillow has the most command-center feeling of the pillows on our list; yet it isn’t so large that it takes over a room. None of our testers had twins, but twin parents swear by this pillow in online reviews.
The design is centered around safety. The slightly raised back running along the outside perimeter of the pillow is a nice touch, since tandem feeding requires each baby to be in a football-hold position. The foam inside and the thin fabric also make this pillow quite lightweight, which is a plus when you’re also holding two babies.
How we picked and tested
After interviewing more than 10 lactations, gathering feedback from online reviews, and testing nursing pillows with four panels of testers since 2017, we’ve determined that the qualities to consider in a nursing pillow are:
Structure and stability: The right pillow should be comfortable but not so squishy that a baby could sink down into it or roll off easily. A pillow that is too large may be cumbersome, but one that’s too small may not provide the necessary degree of support. Ultimately, a nursing pillow needs to provide safe positioning for the baby. And it needs to support a sustainable, comfortable posture for the wearer during long feeding sessions.
Ease of use: Pillows with too many buckles or that are generally not intuitive to use can cause frustration when they come between a hungry baby and their next meal. A good nursing pillow should allow you to feed a baby comfortably in a variety of holds, without complicated maneuvering. The cover should not be too difficult to remove, since it will likely require frequent washing.
Durability: Nursing pillows are subject to messes with virtually every use. The cover should be durable enough to wash and dry on a regular basis, and the inner cushion should, ideally, withstand the nursing period for multiple children.
Fabric: While the cover should be strong enough to survive in the dryer, it should also be soft, smooth, and breathable against your baby’s delicate skin.
Overall aesthetic: A nursing pillow will likely be visible around your house for months, if not years. The pillow cover should ideally come in a variety of colors and designs to appeal to different design preferences.
The wide array of nursing pillows that we have tested since 2017 represent a variety of styles, shapes, fillings, and fabrics. For our 2024 round of testing, we reexamined previous picks, pillows that have been on our radar for years, and pillows that were brand new to us. This was the first year that we tested pillows designed for nursing twins simultaneously.
As we narrowed our list, we focused not only on pillows that are rated highly online but also ones that can be used by a diverse array of caregivers. We ultimately tested 13 pillows with a panel of four current and former breastfeeding moms.
We removed identifying tags from the pillows we tested and numbered them for panelists. While some are ubiquitous enough to be obvious, especially to seasoned mothers (hello, Original Support Boppy!), we wanted to maximize the chances that each pillow would be evaluated on its own merits.
