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Nursing Bras: How to Find One That Fits
June 19, 2009 at 11:00 AM by Cafe Kim - Comments (7)
Are you having trouble finding nursing bras that actually fit? Our lingerie expert is here to help...
My sister, Kristin, has worked in the lingerie industry for several years and has written previous posts about how to know if you are wearing the wrong bra size and how to find a bra if your breasts are different sizes. In response to many questions about how to find nursing bras, she offers this advice:
A nursing bra should fit like an everyday bra—meaning that the area of the bra between the cups should tack in the front to your sternum. Additionally, the underwire of the cups should completely encompass all of the breast tissue on each side of the breast; if you are not wearing a bra with an underwire, the seams that exist in place of the wire should be completely encompassing all of the tissue. I recommend purchasing the nursing bra about one month before having your baby. Leave a little bit of gapping in the cup for additional growth in the remaining month.
Now while I am professionally known as a "boobologist", I do not pretend to have medical expertise. Some doctors do not recommend underwire nursing bras because they have been linked to plugged milk ducts and mastitis. But some large-busted women have told me that soft-cup bras don't offer them enough support. Therefore, before deciding whether or not to purchase a nursing bra with underwire, please consult your doctor.
An excellent underwire nursing bra that I usually recommend is the Anita International Underwire Nursing Bra, which will accommodate up to an H cup. If you can't afford the $69, try the Medela Full Figure Seamless Underwire Nursing Bra available at JCPenney for $36.
Soft-cup nursing bras I like are: Bravado 1011 Basic Maternity Soft Cup Nursing Bra ($35) and (a little more expensive, but definitely more sexy) Elle Macpherson Intimates 'E71-135 Maternelle' Soft Cup Nursing Bra ($55).
Check out these related nursing bra posts on CafeMom:
Do you have a nursing bra you really like and would recommend to other moms?
FILED UNDER: breastfeeding, clothes
Comments:
Your milk ducts are not just in your breast - they extend beneath them and even up to almost your collar bone. Unless you KNOW that you can comfortably wear an underwire while nursing, avoid them at all costs. They should be an exception - not the norm - until breastfeeding is well established and you've tried one out. Don't ask your doctor, they know nothing about your body's particulars. You'll have to test it out yourself and feel where your milk glands are.
Don't buy your bra in a cup too big, either. Instead, get a good, supportive cotton nursing bra that has stretchy cotton cups. Maidenform makes some great, affordable (as in, $11 each) nursing bras that allow an entire cup's worth of variation.
Once nursing bras get up to my current band size, they get all nasty and uncomfortable. I won't be too specific but it just seems nursing bras past 44WhateverCup are terrible.
I was doing an online search as I'll be needing some soon and I don't think I've ever been so disgusted in my life. I'm sorry but my boobs do NOT like to touch eachother (especially in this large, aching, hot, sweaty state) so don't even TRY to put them in something that doesn't have two defined cups. For me in any kind of bra underwire is a must---But do they put underwire in them? Nope. Doesn't seem that way.
Aaaah. But let me stop--I have trouble finding normal bras anyways. I'm just worried because it feels like I'm running out of options. I've actually considered getting creative and using opentip bras (provided a nursing shield is large enoughto stay put and stop leaks) or I may just have to go with nursing tanktops.
*sigh* I'll figure something out.
I'm a big supporter of underwire. Although I'm only a D, I NEVER feel supported without the underwire. For probably a week after having my kids I wore a cheap cotton nursing bra without underwire simply because I was SO tender all the time, but beyond that, I wear the underwire all the time.
For the women who feel they need an underwire, there are a lot of bras out there that have formed cups, and even little supportive bits on the side, without the underwire. They've felt very close to underwires to me, but then again, I'm not large in the cup.
I did try one or two of those, RanaAurora. They felt good in the store and so I bought them. They were ok for a bit and would be fine if I were doing nothing all day but once I really started moving about they were just not very good.
I bet they've given plenty women some liberation but as badly as I wanted them to for me I wasn't so lucky.
Aww, I'm sorry! Like I said, I'm not fighting the battle of caging giant beasts, so I can only know rhetoric when it comes to suggestions there.
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I have never been able to find a nursing bra that the small enough..... They only make them in 34B and up.... and I need an A cup!
LelandsMommy Jun. 19, 2009 at 11:18 AM