Do I need nursing tops?

[amyboo]

Hi,

I'm currently 34+2 pregnant with my first, and am planning on breastfeeding. Hopefully I'll be successful, as they give you lots of support where I live (Belgium). I was planning on going and getting fitted for a couple of nursing bras at around 36 weeks. But, I was just wondering if I'm going to need any special bursing tops? I normally wear lycra fitted tops and T-shirts. Will I be able to feed wearing these? Thanks for your advice.

I've never had a specific nursing top.

Lots of people on here recommend wearing a vest top under a normal top. Pull the vest top down, and the normal top up and the vest covers your baby belly too.

I wore a vest with shoestring straps and a tshirt with enough stretch to pull up. The vest got pulled down, the top up (just enough not to expose whole breast) and to be honest very few people knew I was feeding DS.

Good luck!

Bravado make a brilliant breastfeeding vest with built-in proper bra. It's called something like essential nursing tank (I got mine online from From Here to Maternity). You can wear it on its own if it's warm, or under another top. Have a look and see if it's the sort of thing you'd wear - I lived in mine.

I wore my maternity tops, DS is 3y, DD is 5 mo and I have been wearing them since pg with DS

I've got two feeding vests from H&M which are great, have a kind of built in feeding bra top though I still ear a feeding bra too. Very helpful in this chilly weather so that I;m not exposing too much tummy and back. Other than that I'd just invest in some tops with low V necks or buttons down the front.

i did the vest underneath top over it thing too. Just because was more about my belly than my boob! Worked well and could still wear most of my normal clothes although not dresses unfortunately

Someone gave me some nursing tops from H&M but they were minging so i didn't bother with them.

You can still look nice and BF IMO!

Just to say for the bras I would recommend you wait until after you have given birth and your milk has come through, because you will likely go up another couple of cup sizes by then.
Also I agree with ladidadi, in just buying a few tops with buttons down the front.

I wouldn't bother just yet. I planned on breastfeeding and bought some whilst still pregnant. But after 2 weeks of struggling to breastfeed ended up stopping, so I never wore the tops and now its too late to send them back.

To be honest, the designs weren't great anyway and I still would have wanted to use a scarf to cover up. You can get vest tops / camisoles though which are probably more discreet and can be worn under normal clothes and don't cost too much.

I never bothered, but I wore cardies to cover up the side bits and a scarf to disguise the front.

Practice a bit at home until feel comfortable...

Bump bands are good too if you're selfconcious about your tummy.

I used them for the 1st few weeks of feeding and then realised it was far more discreet for me to wear a baggy top and pull it up than pulling down/unbuttoning anything. Good bfing bra essential though.

I'm wearing one of the bravado essential nursing tanks right now - very useful, and stretchy enough to cope with size changes now that I no longer get engorged. Tried the vest under normal top, which also works to cover the belly. And I got some nice tops from jojomamanbebe in the sale (wouldn't bother paying full price, as normal tops with vests are fine). Did pay full price for a tunic from scrummy mummy for Christmas, though

Problem with trying to look good while BF is much the same as bottle feeding a refluxy baby - i.e. constantly covered in baby vomit as it always gets passed the muslin and bib

Good luck with the BF

I did buy nursing tops and even special nursing dresses, which I found really useful. They are quite hard to find but some there are some specialist on-line stores.

Something like mummylooksfab (.co.uk) and there are a couple of others based in the US. There is a really good designer based in Singapore who makes a variety of specialist breastfeeding clothes (can't remember the designer's name: Amy Something?). Perhaps there is an outlet in Belgium.

If you are still wanting to get bras, I too would recommend Bravado; you can get these towards the end of your pregnancy as they are designed to work with your changing shape. They also come in some great colours; my favourite is my leopard-print one.

Good luck with everything!

I am another vote for the vest top over the nursing bra but under the normal top. The few "breastfeeding tops" I was given just didn't work as well.

I also picked up a few jersey dresses cheap at Sainsbury's that have a v neck neckline with a slight crossover, very handy for feeding out and about too.

I also found normal vest tops with "secret support" (actually they are PJ tops, but who cares?) great for the first week after each DC was born because my breasts were tender until my milk settled down They gave enough support and easy access without rubbing or slipping.

Great - thanks for all the advice! Very useful. I think I'll just stick to what I have already then and see how that goes. i tend to wear fitted jumpers and things normally, and have loads of vest tops and stuff that I could wear underneath, so hopefully that'll work out OK.

regarding the bras, I'm going to need to get at least one before I go into hospital (they keep you in for 5 days here, and it's one of the "items" on the hospital's list of things I'm supposed to take). So, do you recommend I just get one bra fitted around 36/37 weeks, and then go and get others after the baby's born? My boobs grew loads at the start of this pregnancy, but haven't grown since, so I'm not sure if they'll go up in size again?

I never bothered with nursing tops. They are a lot more pricey (at least compared to my regular clothes!) I just make sure my tops aren't tight so they can lift up easily.

If you're worried about showing post-baby tummy you can get maternity support bands, so when you lift top up your tummy is covered.

The most important thing is that the tops aren't gathered under the bust as they won't lift up. Most of my maternity clothes were redundant after the birth for this reason!

Yes, you'll probably need another fitting after baby arrives, but wait a few weeks til BFing is established. I went up 4 cup sizes between 36wks and baby being 10wks old! Though bear in mind my back size changed too.

Good luck!

3m

I bought a couple of Emma Jane vest tops
here which are fab either under another top or at night as they have built in support and space for breast pads to catch any leaks. Good luck with the baby.

Oops meant to say that the sizes are not very big so if in doubt go up a size.