Review: Nursing Bras

In the begin­ning, while your breasts are ten­der and fluc­tu­at­ing a lot in size, you’re going to want a bra that is soft and stretchy. Many, many moms swear by the Bravado Orig­i­nal Nurs­ing Bra, but for me, with my broad chest and wider than aver­age shoul­ders, the Orig­i­nal Nurs­ing Bra did not fit at all. Gen­er­ally, I think if you some­times have prob­lems get­ting wrap tops to fit prop­erly, you may want to steer clear of this style. My favorite early post-natal bra, which was also great for sleep­ing in, was the Medela Com­fort Mater­nity Nurs­ing Bra. Other bras I liked were the Bravado Body Silk Seam­less Nurs­ing Bra and the Elle Macpher­son Inti­mates Mater­nelle Feed­ing Bra, but I must warn that this has faded through repeated wash­ings from pretty pink to dusty gray-pink. I still like it, it’s just not quite as pretty as it used to be.

As your nurs­ing rela­tion­ship matures, you may find that your size has sta­bi­lized and you are yearn­ing to get back into your under­wire bras (not rec­om­mended if you have prob­lems with mas­ti­tis). I hit this point around the time that my son was 7 months old. Since I liked the Medela Com­fort bra, I thought I’d try the Medela Seam­less Under­wire Mater­nity Nurs­ing Bra. It isn’t avail­able in Europe, and it didn’t have the best reviews, but nei­ther did the Com­fort bra, so I went ahead and took the plunge, buy­ing it to ship to a rel­a­tive, who mailed it to me, know­ing that by the time I got it, return­ing wouldn’t be an option. Well, it ends up the reviews on the web were right about this one. The straps are funny and I think they would only sit right on petite women. The wide part of the strap that should sit at the top of the shoul­der, sits on my chest, and the bra rides up a lot.

I really like Anita Mater­nity style 5041. It has a nice amount of stretch, is pretty-ish and sup­port­ive. Feel­ing encour­aged by this, I tried Anita Mater­nity styles 5031, 5035 and 5075, but was unable to find the proper fit in any of these styles. Also, a bra fit­ter told me that Anita runs big. I nor­mally wear a 38C and my Anita size is 36C.

I guess the moral of the story is: just because you do/don’t fit in one style, doesn’t mean you will/won’t fit in another style from the same brand. You really have to try nurs­ing bras on and if you order them online, make sure you’ll be able to return them.

My final advice, is that if you have a reg­u­lar bra that you love, you can take it to a seam­stress and have them make it into a nurs­ing bra. I can’t say for sure how much this might cost you, as I had a friend do mine for 5 Euro a piece, but I’m seri­ously lov­ing my new col­lec­tion of Body by Victoria’s Secret nurs­ing bras! (If you’d like to help me in my mis­sion to get Victoria’s Secret to sell nurs­ing bras, send them a sug­ges­tion to that fact)

Note: None of the web­sites listed offer world­wide ship­ping on their prod­ucts. You can search for inter­na­tional stock­ists through the Anita web­site. The Bravado online shop cur­rently ships to the US and Canada only, but their bras and tops can be found in online shops located in coun­tries world­wide (it would be nice if these were listed on the Bravado web­site — hint hint!); the same is true of the Medela and Elle Macpher­son bras.

Have you found a nurs­ing bra you love?

You may also be interested in reading:

• Victoria's Secret has nursing bras (18)
• Nursing in comfort (4)
• How to make a regular bra into a nursing bra (39)
• Great Nursing and Maternity Wrap Cardigan (7)
• Gourmandise, the sexiest nursing bra ever? (3)

Tagged as: Anity Maternity, Bras, Bravado, Breastfeeding, Clothing and accessories - Nursing/Breastfeeding, Elle Macpherson Intimates, Medela, Victorias Secret