diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9666d34d43..0acc865b99 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Add optional distro and configurator selection for auto-instrumentation
   ([#1823](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/pull/1823))
 - Add option to add Opentelemetry middleware at specific position in middleware chain
-  ([#1903]https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/pull/1903)
+  ([#2834]https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/pull/2834)
 
 ### Added
 - `opentelemetry-instrumentation-kafka-python` Add instrumentation to `consume` method
diff --git a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/django/__init__.py b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/django/__init__.py
index b842eebe17..dc8b150d26 100644
--- a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/django/__init__.py
+++ b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/django/__init__.py
@@ -389,16 +389,23 @@ def _instrument(self, **kwargs):
         is_sql_commentor_enabled = kwargs.pop("is_sql_commentor_enabled", None)
 
         otel_position = environ.get("OTEL_PYTHON_DJANGO_MIDDLEWARE_POSITION")
-        middleware_position = int(otel_position) if otel_position is not None else kwargs.pop("middleware_position", 0)
+        try:
+            middleware_position = int(otel_position)
+        except (ValueError, TypeError):
+            _logger.debug(
+                "The middleware_position you provided (%s) is not an integer. Defaulting to 0.",
+                otel_position,
+            )
+            middleware_position = kwargs.pop("middleware_position", 0)
         
         if len(settings_middleware) < middleware_position:
             _logger.debug(
-                "The middleware_position you provided (%d) is greater than the current number of middlewares (%d). \
-                    Since the number of middlewares is less than the total number of middlewares, the Otel middleware will be appended at the end of the middleware chain.",
+                "The middleware_position you provided (%s) is greater than the number of middlewares (%s). Defaulting "
+                "the middleware_position to 0.",
                 middleware_position,
                 len(settings_middleware),
             )
-            middleware_position = len(settings_middleware)
+            middleware_position = 0
         if is_sql_commentor_enabled:
             settings_middleware.insert(
                 middleware_position, self._sql_commenter_middleware