To not understand why nursing clothing comes in a maternity fit??

[Aliveinwanderland]

I feel like I'm missing something obvious...

The majority of people who are breastfeeding have recently had a baby and are therefore not pregnant- so why is most of the nursing clothing I can find a maternity fit?

I'm not pregnant- I'm breastfeeding my 4 month old and want to wear a nice fitting dress that I can feed in!

[Laiste]

I could never do the one top up one down thing. But then i have ginormous boobs even when not breast feeding and it was really hard for me to feed with any discretion at all. Wrap tops were the best for me.

The size of my boobs while i was feeding were only accommodated by proper nursing wrap tops. Yes they were too baggy round the tummy/waist, but the chances of anyone making a top which would have fitted my boobs AND opened far enough to b.feed AND fitted my quite small waist and tummy was zero.

WHY all the bloody twee navy and white stripes and polka dots though? Is it all still like that?

[Aliveinwanderland]

I'm rather small chested so one up one down works well as long as the outer top isn't too tight or thick.

I can't feed through the side or lift boobs out of outfits like you can with larger chests!

Lindyhop not at all my style!

[SleepFreeZone]

Seraphine?

It's obviously a budget thing ie. not enough people want to buy so they are throwing nursing in with maternity and broadening their scope.

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

This is what I wore and managed to feed in it OK. It's a fake wrap dress so that's why it fit my small boobs! It's Billie and Blossom from Dorothy Perkins.

It's not my usual style really, but was flattering and practical!

[londonrach]

Only bought jeans. No need to buy any other tops etc.

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

Here's a closer pic of the top to give you an idea of the shape

[WarblingWail]

It annoys me too. Nursing clothes aren't a necessity, but I do like my nursing dresses and tops. I've got some nice ones.

Bears land on amazon and the Breton stripe breastfeeding dresses are a slender fit, and I've got some h and m nursing tops.

[WarblingWail]

For a wedding, can you wear an ordinary strappy or v neck dress with a shrug or bolero over the top, to stop the 'whack a boob' outness? I feel your pain, I had to go to a ball at 32 weeks pregnant - ended up squeezing myself into a non mat dress in a size up to normal as all maternity dresses seemed so frumpy (absolutely hated everything serephine had to offer before anyone suggests it!).

[BestZebbie]

...I don't know about all of you guys, but I still had a 6-month-sized pregnancy bump for at least six weeks after giving birth, unless I wore some kind of corsetry/band. That is also the timeframe in which there is a big spike in women trying breastfeeding and then falling by the wayside (and working out that you can use other clothes to do it as well).
From this, I'd expect the bulk of individual women wanting to buy nursing clothes to be heavily skewed towards people who basically need a maternity cut, and the long tail of people who feed for years to not really appear in the market as they are all wearing vest tops from George by that point.

[BeyondUnderthinking]

I wore a lot of joe browns in later breastfeeding months with ds2 (once the bump had gone down and as I was pregnant with ds2 while feeding ds1). They have a lot of dresses that unbutton from the neck to the waist so are easy to get your boobs out :)

[LaurieMarlow]

I didn't lose the baby weight till I stopped bf at 11 months post birth. So, it worked for me.

It was probably the frumpiest period of my life though.

[Swearwolf]

Can I recommend Feed Me Mummy vests? They have a flap under the bust to lift up, so you can do a reverse version of one up one down. Pull wrap dress down (and you don't need big boobs to do this, just get one that's a bit stretchy and pull it aside) then the whole top of the vest lifts up and you still have perfect coverage.

My gripe with nursing dresses is that they're all so bloody long! I'm 5'2" and have never found one that didn't hit below the knee, which just looks ridiculous on me. It doesn't happen with normal dresses (except in some shops) so why do they assume breastfeeding mothers are all 6 foot?!

[Snowflakes1122]

I agree op. They aren two separate things, nursing and maternity wear.

Or at least they should be.

[QueenOfTheCatBastards]

Any speciality clothing is going to have a cost premium. I think they're designed to be bought as maternity wear, then used as nursing after birth. 2 for 1 if you will.

Nothing I've ever had to deal with though, fat people werentncatered fornin either category when I was pregnant and breastfeeding. I opted for the vest/overtop combo like a lot of people do.

[daisypond]

Would you consider a nursing cover/breastfeeding scarf? - a bit like an apron that hangs around your neck? Obviously, you don't wear it all the time, just when you need to feed the baby. My niece had one at a posh do and very effective it was, too, with a smart dress with buttons down the front.

[Teaandcake08]

I agree OP, LO is only 5 weeks old but I'm already fed up of the frumpy shapelessness of maternity/nursing clothes. I went shopping last week and got some tops that I can do the whole one too up one too down thing as none of my usual wardrobe seemed to work. Driving me mad.

Anyway I was having a look through a jojo maman catalog and they have a small section of nursing clothes designed just for postnatal. Few dresses, depending on your style might be worth a look. I find most of their stuff not to be my style but I've ordered a dress to try for a more formal occasion I have coming up-fingers crossed its ok cos I'm not a fan of whacking the boob out! I'm still getting used to feeding in public with a scarf! Tricky business!

[notMarlene]

Zara have a gorgeous zip fronted jumpsuit in ATM. Well worth a try.

[notMarlene]

here.

[SquedgieBeckenheim]

I went to a wedding when DD was 6 weeks old, I had lost my pregnancy bump by that point. I wore a v neck dress that I could move to one side. Didn't last me all day though, as DD kindly vomited all down it between the ceremony and the reception!
I do agree there needs to be more choice of nursing clothes not cut to fit a bump! I got very bored of always having to wear a vest and t shirt, especially through a very hot summer.

[Bluefrog26]

I just used a large Muslin, tied it like a sling and slipped it over my head. Pop baby under neath and no one could see anything. Then you can wear what you like

[Cupoftchaiagain]

Yup this really annoys me too. Maternity clothes accentuate the left over baby weight and made me feel really fat and still pregnant. I wanted (still want) a cut that flattens the stomach and provides boob access.

Next have a button front military style shirt dress I am wearing to a wedding soon.

[missm0use]

I think they make it that way so you get more 'use' out of your maternity clothes / nursing clothes. Or so they can triple the price of them!

Or it's for people like me: Still breastfeeding and found out they're pregnant again!

[skerrywind]

Just to add - you have the right to be as "discreet" or "indiscreet" as you like.

[Okite]

I was pregnant and breastfeeding at the same time, maternity/nursing clothes were an essential for me!
I got some nursing tops from mamaway, they were very good and not at all maternity fit. In fact I still wear some of them now, many years after finishing breastfeeding.

[skerrywind]

I didn't use nursing or maternity clothes when I was breastfeeding and 9 months pregnant.