Planning to breastfeed your baby? Wondering how you can set up a breastfeeding station at home? This blog post is an extensive and complete list of all the must-haves that you would need to set up a breastfeeding station at your home.
As a new mom to a little one, you will often find yourself either sitting on a couch, a chair or on your bed and breastfeeding your little one. Breastfeeding is one of the best things that you can do for your baby. It is a great way to connect with your little one while providing them with the most nutritious food. But breastfeeding does come with its own challenges but once you get the hang of it, it is one of the most beautiful things that you would have done for your baby and you will cherish it for a long time to come.
My breastfeeding journey lasted for a year with my daughter and although I enjoyed each and every moment of it, my initial few months were really tough. There were challenges like trying to get my daughter to latch on, to be able to breastfeed in the correct positions and my biggest challenge was to be able to feed her to full. During this process, I realized that the more I started to get planned and organized, my challenges started to vanish and the nursing moments with my little Mishika started to become more enjoyable.
In this blog post, you will find a detailed and extensive list of all the breastfeeding station must-haves that you would need to set up a nursing station at home. Here it goes!
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Before moving forward, I would like to introduce you all to the Ultimate breastfeeding course by Milkology. I had personally taken this course at the start of my breastfeeding journey and had found it extremely useful. You can take this course from the comfort of your home as it’s online and it is packed with the necessary and all the required information that you would require to get started on your breastfeeding journey. And the best part is that it’s only for $19.
Breastfeeding Station Organizers
With so many things that you require to set up a breastfeeding station, the first and foremost thing that you should invest in is an organizer for all your breastfeeding essentials. Having a fixed spot for all the nursing supplies can make your life so much easier! There are two types of breastfeeding station organizers that you can choose from. The first one is the nursing station caddy – a set of three baskets (that is what I had used). These baskets are easy to carry and built to organize all the required nursery items properly. I had used one of the baskets as a diaper caddy which contained all the baby stuff like diapers, wipes, diaper cream, etc. And the second caddy housed the nursing supplies like the nursing pads, burp cloths, milksavers, nipple cream, breast pump, etc.
Another way of setting up a breastfeeding station at your home is by using this three-stack roller organizer. This is a great way to organize everything in one place with one cabin for the baby stuff, the second one for all the mom stuff and the third one for the miscellaneous stuff. Another great option for a roller organizer is this one.
Since I have a colonial design home, I opted for the caddy as I would often want to breastfeed my daughter in my living room while watching TV. But if you are going to be breastfeeding at only one spot, then having a stand-alone three-stack organizer is a great idea. Whatever your nursing requirements make sure to choose a nursing station accordingly as it is extremely vital to have all the supplies in one spot and at easy access.
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Nursing Chair
You will be spending a lot of time breastfeeding, so why not make it as comfortable as possible! I had my daughter via a c-section and found the nursing chair as a great relief from the pain while sitting in the upright position while breastfeeding. There are a lot of nursing chairs available out there for different price ranges. I had used two different styles of nursing chairs, one was this one, although a great design and I did use it for a long time I eventually gravitated towards a more comfortable nursing chair this one. This chair had ample space for me as well as the baby and I could easily position the nursing pillow in the chair without feeling too tucked in.
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Nursing Pillow
Whether you are breastfeeding on a chair, couch or on the bed, the nursing pillow is an absolute must-have for any nursing mom. It helps a lot in placing the baby in the right position and it also helps in providing support to your stomach. Also, nursing pillows can also come in handy to give your little one tummy-time.
Nipple care
Some moms often go through sore nipples which can cause a lot of pain while breastfeeding if not treated in time. I found this nipple cream really helpful during my time and sometimes I would also use coconut oil or olive oil which was also able to provide a lot of relief. Also, this nipple butter has worked well with many moms too.
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Milk Collectors
One of the most common breastfeeding issues that you would have heard of is the breast engorgement or leaking of the milk. It’s so common and I had gone through this many times including at my workplace when within a few seconds my breasts would engorge, and my shirt would get completely wet. Well no worries about that, there are a couple of things that you can do that can help you with this. First of all, you can use these disposable or washable nursing pads that can absorb all the extra milk and hence save you the embarrassment of your shirt getting wet.
But why let perfectly good breast milk go to waste? In that case, you can either opt for the milk savers (perfect for the workplace) which will collect all the extra milk and you can transfer and save it for later. Or you could also use a hakaa which besides being a manually operated breast pump is also a great bottle milk collector.
Burp Cloths
Babies create a lot of mess and so having a few clean burp cloths around can be very useful. I would usually keep a few burp cloths on my shoulder and then place my daughter’s head on my shoulder while burping her. This was a great way to avoid a perfectly clean shirt from getting messy.
Also, I found using these adsorbent towels very handy. During breastfeeding my milk would often leak underneath my breast wetting my daughter’s clothes as well as mine. I used to roll these adsorbent towels and keep them underneath my breastfeeding boob thus making sure that all the extra leaked milk gets absorbed.
Additional diapers and baby wipes
As little babies feed all the time, they also poop a lot. Keeping a lot of extra diapers and wipes handy and in reach is a great idea as you will be needing them a lot. This saves a lot of time and hassle of moving from one place to another to clean the baby.
Personal care for baby
All my daughter did as a baby was feed, poop, and sleep. Hence I found having a few personal care items for my daughter in my breastfeeding station very useful. Some of the personal items that you can keep handy are a soft baby blanket (the fabric of this blanket is so soft), baby moisturizer (you would want to often moisturize your little one especially in winter from preventing cracking skin) and a few swaddle sets to swaddle your baby as they can sleep better. Also, a baby nail clipper, to be able to cut your baby’s nails peacefully while they are asleep or feeding.
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Breastfeeding app
One of the first things that your doctor will tell you to monitor with a brand-new baby is the number of daytime feeds and night-time feeds as well the number of times the baby poops and pees. Keeping up with all this information is all too much, especially if you are sleep deprived. I found this breastfeeding app as a great tool to track all the breastfeeding sessions with my daughter hassle-free.
Breast pump
It is a good idea to have a breast pump located in your breastfeeding station. This will be very useful when you would like to pump extra milk to store for later. Although there are many breastfeeding pumps available out there, I would recommend the Medela breast pump. I had used it extensively and they are so reliable and easy to use. Also, they come fitted in these super stylish bags which are ideal if you need to carry them to work. For manual breast pumps, again there are many options, but I really liked this one and as I had mentioned earlier you could also go for a hakaa which is a manually operated breast pump and can also serve as a milk collector during leaks.
Also, if you are looking for a free breast pump, you can fill out this form. There are many options for breast pumps available here. You can get started here to learn more!
Breast Pump Parts and Supplies
If you are going to use a breast pump then having additional pump parts and supplies will be useful. The breast pump parts that you would need are an extra pair of valves, cleaning wipes, milk storage bags and a marker to write the date and time on the milk bags before storing them in the freezer.
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Bottle warmer & baby bottle
Absolutely needed if you have a bottle-feeding your baby. While looking for a bottle warmer I wanted something that was universally designed to fit multiple brands of bottles so that if I had to change the milk bottle for my baby girl in the near future I would not have to purchase a new bottle warmer. I found that the Avent bottle warmer suited to the best of my needs. It's easy to use and compact in size. Although it is only designed to warm a four-ounce milk bottle, I was easily able to warm an eight-ounce bottle as well using the same warmer.
Water bottle
Breastfeeding can make a mom really thirsty and hence having a water bottle close to you can be very helpful. I remember going through multiple rounds of my water bottle during one session of breastfeeding.
Energy Snack
When you are breastfeeding you are burning double the calories. It is the most important for a nursing mom to take care of her diet and in turn that is what helps the milk come. I used to keep a few quick oatmeal energy bars always handy as well as milk makers which can also help increase milk production.
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Entertainment for mom
In the initial few months, a brand new baby mostly eats, poops and sleeps. Hence having a few things to entertain yourself while the baby feeds or naps can help you not get bored. Also in my case, having a good book or magazine to read helped me from falling asleep during nighttime feeding. Some more personal stuff for mom to keep handy are reading glasses, TV remote, night lamp, and a phone Charger.
Personal care for moms
Along with entertainment also comes a few personal care items for moms which is a great idea to keep handy. Some of them are an extra shirt (in case the one you are wearing gets messy), nursing bras, nursing scarf, hair ties, lip balm, tissues, and moisturizer
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Garbage bin
Babies and breastfeeding together can make you feel very messy. Hence having a garbage bin to throw away the used wipes and a diaper disposal bin to discard the used diapers can help you keep your area clean and stop the mess from piling up. Also, the diaper disposal bin is very useful for preventing the bad odor of the used diapers from lingering around.
Paper Towels
Lastly after cleaning wipes, having a roll of paper towel can be useful too to clean the mess.
I hope that this list of nursery station essentials was useful to you all! Having a nursery station can help a mom spend less time wondering where all her stuff is and more time cuddling with her little one.
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