Most nursing chairs are designed around an assumed “average” body, and if you’re noticeably shorter or taller than that average, or already managing back pain, the gap between “looks comfortable” and “actually fits you” can be surprisingly wide. A chair that leaves a shorter parent’s feet dangling, or a taller parent’s knees jammed against the edge of the seat, isn’t just an annoyance, it genuinely undermines the posture support a nursing chair is supposed to provide during the hours you’ll spend in it each week.
At Babymore, this comes up often enough in customer questions that it’s worth breaking down exactly what to look for based on your own body, not just a chair’s overall style. If you’re starting from scratch, our guide on how to choose a nursing chair is a useful place to begin before you narrow things down by height and comfort.
The best nursing chair for a short person prioritises a footstool to bring your feet properly flat, since seat height is usually the biggest mismatch for shorter parents. The best nursing chair for a tall person needs a taller backrest that reaches at least to shoulder height and a deeper seat, so your thighs are properly supported rather than your knees sitting higher than your hips.
For back pain specifically, a firm seat with dedicated lumbar support outperforms a soft, sink-in cushion, since firm support keeps your spine in a more neutral position through long feeding sessions. In all three cases, a matching footstool and solid, well-positioned armrests you can push up from make a genuine difference, regardless of your height.
A nursing chair only does its job properly when a handful of measurements line up with your own body, not just the chair’s overall look. Four dimensions matter most:
Most standard nursing chairs are built around a single, unadjustable set of these measurements, which is exactly why the same chair that feels perfect for one parent can feel genuinely wrong for another.
For shorter parents, the most common mismatch is seat height. If your feet don’t reach the floor properly, your thighs end up unsupported and pressing into the front edge of the seat, which can cut off circulation and pull your pelvis out of a neutral position over a long feed. A footstool is the most effective fix here, bringing your feet up to a properly supported position rather than leaving them to dangle or search for the floor.
Both our Freya Nursing Chair with Footstool and Lux Nursing Chair with Footstool include a correctly proportioned, matching footstool as standard, which solves this far more reliably than pairing a chair with a random ottoman and hoping the height works out. It’s also worth checking seat depth specifically if you’re on the shorter side, since a seat that’s too deep can leave a gap behind your knees even once your feet are properly supported.
Taller parents run into the opposite problem: a seat that’s too low relative to their leg length, pushing their knees up above hip height and tilting the pelvis backward, which flattens the lower back’s natural curve and is a common driver of the lower back ache that shows up after weeks of feeding sessions. Backrest height matters just as much here. If the backrest only reaches your mid-back, your upper back and shoulders get no real support at all, which becomes noticeable fast during longer, slower night feeds.
Our Lux Nursing Chair is the taller of our two ranges, standing 97cm in its armchair configuration with a genuinely tall backrest, and it includes a dedicated lumbar cushion as standard, both worth checking against your own height if you’re on the taller side. You can see the current colourways on the Lux Nursing Chair with Footstool in Grey product page. Seat depth matters too, since a shallow seat leaves your thighs unsupported regardless of how good the backrest is; sit fully back in any chair you’re considering and check that your thighs are supported along their full length, not just at the front edge.
This is less about height specifically and more about firmness and support structure. A soft, deep, sink-in cushion might look inviting, but it actively works against good posture, encouraging you to slump rather than sit upright, which places uneven pressure through your lower back over a long feed.
A firmer seat that holds its shape keeps your spine closer to a neutral position throughout. Dedicated lumbar support, a contoured backrest or an included cushion specifically shaped to support the lower back’s natural curve, makes a genuine difference here too. Our Lux range includes a lumbar cushion as standard alongside a supportive, contoured backrest, and one detail worth knowing if back pain is a specific concern: it’s been described by customers as “firm rather than soft,” which is exactly the quality worth prioritising over plush comfort alone.
If night feeds specifically tend to aggravate your back, our guide on how to make night feeds more comfortable covers positioning and setup tips alongside chair choice. We go into this in more depth, including the specific mechanics of standing up without straining your core or back, in our guide on the best nursing chair after a C-section, which covers many of the same firm-support, good-armrest principles relevant to back pain generally, not just post-surgical recovery.
Regardless of your height or back concerns, a few features consistently separate a genuinely good nursing chair from a disappointing one. Sturdy, well-positioned armrests let you push up to stand using your arms rather than straining through your core or lower back with every exit.
A smooth glide or gentle rocking motion helps settle your baby with minimal physical effort on your part, which matters over the hundreds of feeds you’ll sit through in the first year. Storage pockets built into the arms mean a muslin, your phone, or a water bottle are within reach without needing to twist or get up mid-feed, a small detail that makes a genuinely large difference at 2am, something we cover in more detail in our guide on setting up a night feed station around your nursing chair.
Our Lux range’s two built-in storage pockets and both ranges’ smooth rocking motion cover this ground well, regardless of which height and firmness combination ends up suiting you best. For a fuller rundown of what a dedicated nursing chair adds over ordinary seating, see our guide on the benefits of using a nursing chair.
If you can test a chair in person before ordering, run through this quick check:
If you’re ordering online without the chance to test in person, compare a chair’s published dimensions against your own height and the general ergonomic principles above, rather than relying on marketing photos alone to judge fit.
| Feature | Freya | Lux |
| Chair height | 95cm | Up to 97cm (armchair mode) |
| Footstool included | Yes | Yes |
| Lumbar cushion | Contoured backrest | Included as a separate cushion |
| Storage pockets | Built into arms | Two, built into arms |
| Notable feature | Compact, rocking legs | Converts to a wing-back armchair on beech legs once nursing days are over |
Both are genuinely solid choices; Lux’s slightly taller backrest and included lumbar cushion make it worth a closer look if you’re taller or managing back pain specifically, while Freya’s more compact footprint may suit a smaller nursery layout equally well. You can browse the Freya Nursing Chair with Footstool in Off-White Boucle directly to check its dimensions against your own measurements. If you’re unsure which fits your own measurements, it’s worth comparing the published dimensions on each product page directly against your height and the checklist above rather than choosing on style alone.
The right nursing chair isn’t the one that looks best in nursery photos, it’s the one whose seat height, depth, armrests, and backrest actually match your own body. Whether that means prioritising a footstool as a shorter parent, a taller backrest as a taller one, or firm support and lumbar cushioning if back pain is a concern, checking these specific measurements against yourself matters more than style alone. Once you’ve found the right fit, our guide on how to clean upholstery on nursing chairs is worth bookmarking to help it stay in good condition for the long run.
Babymore’s nursing chair range, including Freya and Lux, both come with a matching footstool as standard, and our guide on nursing chair versus a regular chair is worth reading next if you’re still deciding whether a dedicated nursing chair is the right investment for your nursery.
