The lactation consultants that we spoke to agree that you don’t need a nursing pillow to feed a baby successfully, but many people find them helpful in promoting good posture and enabling a variety of feeding positions.

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.

“What you really want to think of is your body posture,” said Melanie Ahlstrom, RN, MSN, IBCLC, a lactation consultant in Minnesota. “The pillow should make you more comfortable and bring the baby to you, because if it’s too low you’re going to lean over.”

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.

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 Susan Burger, PhD, IBCLC.

To help you decide whether you want a nursing pillow or not, consider breastfeeding resources (such as KellyMom), group classes or support groups (like those run through La Leche League), or the input of a lactation consultant.

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.

The second, softer side makes this pillow functional for longer-term use. All of the mothers on our 2024 test panel appreciated the versatility of this pillow. Once breastfeeding is established and the baby grows enough to have head control, a mother no longer needs to use both hands for feeding, and that firm side isn’t quite as necessary. This pillow’s squishy side still boosts the baby to the breast, and it supports the breastfeeder’s arm and correct posture.

The size is just right. The pillow is wider than most from front to back but not so large that it’s inconvenient to store. It measures 22.5 inches across and 9 inches deep in the center, with the sides running 16.25 inches.

The design is size-inclusive. This nursing pillow has a wide base with short curved sides, so it can fit a greater variety of bodies. The waist strap is long enough to encompass some plus-size wearers, according to reviews, but it isn’t cumbersome when left unbuckled—there are even pockets to tuck the straps away, if desired.

It comes with a warranty. Boppy provides a warranty for one year from purchase, including material defects, user damage, and workmanship defects.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Washing it is a bit complicated. To wash this pillow, you need to remove the foam insert from the firm side and tuck in the straps. The soft side of the pillow is fully sewn into the cover, so the pillow is totally out of commission when it’s dirty. Boppy recommends washing on delicate and drying with a tennis ball in the dryer, to help the pillow keep its fluffy shape.

The waist strap is kind of flimsy. This pillow’s strap isn’t as supportive as that of the My Brest Friend Twin & Plus Nursing Pillow or the My Brest Friend Deluxe (a former pick in this guide that we still think is a good choice).

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.

The L shape gives it flexibility. The design seems straightforward, but it’s also clever. This pillow has a wide center, and, unlike C-shaped lap pillows (like the Boppy Original Support Nursing Pillow), it has a broad curve where the baby can lie. That also means you can rotate the pillow to either side or keep the bend centered on your body and move the baby to either side to nurse.

It could double as a pregnancy-support pillow. This nursing pillow is big enough to give support to a growing belly, without taking up as much room as a traditional pregnancy pillow would.

It’s easy to wash. The cover goes on like a pillowcase, and it’s easy to put on and take off for cleaning (no zippers or Velcro to contend with). Luna Lullaby recommends washing the cover in a cool- or warm-water gentle cycle and tumble-drying it.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It feels less supportive than other nursing pillows. This pillow isn’t as structured or as firm as our other picks, and it doesn’t settle as close to the body as pillows with straps or as the beanbag-like Blessed Nest Nesting Pillow can. One tester thought this pillow wasn’t right for her newborn due to the lack of support (it wasn’t flat and firm enough), and another didn’t like how the pillow easily moved away from her body without a waist strap.

It’s quite large. Some of our 2024 panelists preferred Luna Lullaby’s Travel Nursing Pillow to the regular Lullaby, which they thought was too big. The regular Lullaby is around 45 inches long, and its size and shape can make it cumbersome and thus trickier for petite users to keep on their laps.

It has a relatively weak warranty policy. Luna Lullaby accepts pillows back only within 30 days for an abnormal defect.

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. We tried another moon-shaped pillow in testing (the Snuggle Me Organic) that looks pretty, but in practice the slim crescent ends seemed too flimsy to give support. At 26 inches wide, 16 inches deep, and roughly 5 inches high, the Blessed Nest does this shape well.

It can be used differently for newborns versus bigger babies. The Blessed Nest pillow provides instructions on how to hold one end of the pillow up, so the buckwheat hulls fill the opposite end, and then fold the pillow down and create a little “nest” for a newborn to nurse in securely. Larger babies can use the whole pillow without it needing to be folded over.

It is designed to double as a pregnancy pillow. With this pillow’s moldable shape, you could get exactly the support you want under your bump or between your legs while pregnant. Blessed Nest has two videos demonstrating how on its website.

The cover is machine-washable. The cover has a dressmaker-style hidden zipper on the inside of the moon shape, and it unzips so you can wash and machine-dry the cover without issue (unlike the Boppy Best Latch). The buckwheat-hulls insert is encased in a simple cotton cover, and it absolutely should not be submerged in water or the hulls turn “to oatmeal,” according to Blessed Nest.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It makes noise. When you move the pillow, the hulls make a gentle rain noise that can best be described as beanbag chair resettling; it’s possible that the sound could startle a sensitive babe out of slumber.

You have to reposition the pillow when switching sides. A flat, firm pillow like the Boppy Best Latch Nursing pillow doesn’t have to be moved or shifted for a simple cross cradle breastfeeding hold. But the Blessed Nest pillow has to be manipulated for optimal positioning every time you move your baby. Our panelists didn’t consider this a drawback, but some people may want to avoid this extra step.

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.

It’s adjustable, and it can fit a diverse array of body types. This is the pillow that Brest Friend (which makes multiple nursing pillows) recommends for plus-size parents. We found that the strap can get stuck in the Velcro while adjusting, but reviews say the strap expands well to fit larger bodies.

It has added back support. The pillow has a padded backrest with a removable section for customizable support while you’re nursing.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It’s rigid and hard to form for everybody. Even though this pillow is designed for plus-size people, the deep C shape of the front portion can still provide a restrictive fit, since the rigid foam doesn’t have a lot of give. My Brest Friend acknowledges that the pillow may not fit immediately postpartum, stating that, “Within the first week of giving birth, a woman’s uterus continues to be enlarged. As your uterus begins to shrink over the course of the first week postpartum, the pillow should begin to fit more comfortably.” But some women have bigger tummies for months post-birth, so we are concerned about how many people may find it doesn’t fit their postpartum bodies well. In addition, the large, padded backrest and an understandably bulky front section give this a “stuck in a flotation device” feeling that’s hard to shake.

The fabric is exceptionally thin. The pillow’s polyester fabric is the thinnest among fabrics of all the pillows in our guide. You can see how it puckers even in photos.

If you’re looking for a no-frills nursing pillow: The Boppy Original Support Nursing Pillow or the Boppy Nursing Pillow Luxe Support could be the right choice for you. The only difference in the two pillows is that the Luxe Support has a softer texture and piping all the way around. Many of its designs avoid the mostly nursery-like colors of the Original pillow. So if the aesthetics of your living room or bedroom matter to you, you may prefer the Luxe. These pillows do not fit all body types, though. As a pre-pregnancy size-8 person with extra stomach weight postpartum, I found them somewhat constricting. Additionally, one of our lactation experts cautioned that rounded nursing pillows can be dangerous, creating an unstable surface that babies can roll off of.

If you want a travel pillow that can work at home or on the go: Our 2024 panel loved the Luna Lullaby Travel Nursing Pillow, with some women saying that once breastfeeding is established, they’d prefer this pillow to the full-size Luna Lullaby Baby Nursing Pillow. One panelist said it was for “the confident breastfeeder” more than for a first-time parent. It has the same slight V shape that the large pillow has, but it’s scaled down to less than half the size. It comes in six colors, all in the same minky fabric as its full-size counterpart.

If you want the structure and features of the My Brest Friend Twin & Plus, but you need to feed only one baby: The My Brest Friend Deluxe Nursing Pillow was a long-time pick in this guide, and it receives rave reviews online. And it comes with many of the bells and whistles that our panelists loved about its Twin & Plus counterpart. Some testers found it more unwieldy than the Boppy Best Latch Breastfeeding Pillow, though, and said it was suitable only for younger babies.

I am currently breastfeeding my second baby, and I’ve used every pillow in this guide (and then some). I am also the author of Wirecutter’s guides to baby monitors and baby wraps and slings.

In March 2024, I assembled a panel of four current and former breastfeeding moms to evaluate 13 nursing pillows—some that were existing picks and some that were new as of our last round of testing. I then discussed the panelists’ preferences with Melanie Ahlstrom, RN, MSN, IBCLC, who provides lactation support in a busy urban hospital in Minnesota.

This guide builds on the work of senior editor Courtney Schley, who wrote an earlier version of this guide, putting nine pillows to the test with 12 nursing mothers. Additionally, writer Vivian Ewing conducted a round of research in late 2023 and early 2024, interviewing experts and ultimately narrowing our focus to 13 pillows for this new round of testing.

After interviewing more than 10 lactation experts, 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. After testing the pillows with panelists, I discussed our findings with lactation consultant Melanie Ahlstrom.

We tested the Twin Z, and our panelists were baffled by how to actually use it (Googling a picture of it in action helped); they also found it was too large, since it took up the size of a mini crib.

We tested the Mom Cozy Original Nursing Pillow and Positioner, and though the moms liked the large back-support portion of the pillow, they wanted a firmer base. They thought the base was too underfilled for a newborn.

Only one panelist liked the Bbhugme Nursing Pillow; the rest thought it was too big and round. Inside, there are silicone pebbles, which lend it a moldable shape, somewhat similar to the Blessed Nest. But unlike the buckwheat hulls inside the Blessed Nest pillow, the pebbles in this pillow didn’t interlock or stop moving, so it felt a bit unwieldy.

We tested the Frida Mom Adjustable Nursing Pillow, which was too high at the breast for half of our panelists. One mother with a long torso thought that even though it fit her, it felt too intense and too much like a lap desk. Ariel Swift, a labor and postpartum doula and director of education and outreach with Birth Partners, sometimes recommends this pillow because it has removable levels of support as babies grow.

We tested the Snuggle Me Organic pillow, and we found the ends of the crescent design were too thin to support any weight from baby or mom.

We also tested the Boppy Anywhere Nursing Pillow, and we found it was too small to be of much use in supporting a baby (our panelists also thought the tie ends could be dangerous to have around a baby).

We did not test the One Z Pillow due to its limited availability at the time of testing.

We opted not to 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. This pillow has fewer user reviews and a lower star rating on Amazon than other pillows we considered.

We opted not to test the Humble-Bee Nurse-Sling due to low Amazon ratings and because it is more akin to a sling than a pillow. Similarly, the Lansinoh Nursie Plush Breastfeeding Pillow is not a pillow that lays across your lap but instead wraps around your arm to support your baby’s head.

We didn’t test the DockATot La Maman Wedge because of reviews that said its too narrow and slippery (which I found to be true from personal use before testing for this guide). And we dismissed the My Brest Friend Inflatable Travel Pillow because of reviews saying the fabric was uncomfortable.

This guide was edited by Alison Rochford and Kalee Thompson.