Uplifting maternity bras...

[spotofcheerfulness]

...is there such a thing? Am fed up of looking like the queen when I'm pregnant with a great big unibosom. I've got one of those Anita ones with a bit of underwiring but I'm really missing the shape that a balcony bra gives. I feel that non-wired bras instantly put a stone on me as my breasts get ginormous during pregnancy. Is there such a thing of do I just grin and bear for the forseeable future?

Hot milk are great, quite expensive though, but you would hopefully get a good resell price on ebay. Should they not fit after your milk comes in.

You can just wear a normal underwired bra during pregnancy. Just make sure it fits properly and the wires are flat against your ribs and not cutting into boob-flesh. Only issue is that if you keep going up sizes, it can get expensive as you really need them to fit properly.

The woman in the shop suggested I might want to get a non-underwired bra as well, but I think the look on my face told her she was fighting a losing battle .

For nursing I am going Hot Milk.

Ah, that's interesting, I thought normal underwires were strictly verboten. Thanks! I might also have a look on ebay for Hot Milk...

There is a theory that underwires interfere with the development of milk ducts. Can't see it myself if the bra's properly fitted. At 38 G there is no way on this earth I am wearing a uniboob wireless bra in this pregnancy or after, during breastfeeding.

Depending on how much your boobs expand when your milk comes in (and if you're planning to breastfeed) you can adapt your standard bras to nursing ones with a couple of bikini clips - available from john lewis or similar. I just couldn't find nice nursing bras anywhere :( so thought I'd mention that - might be totally irrelevant tho, so do ignore if so!

Bravissimo have checked with the Midwifery College and perfectly fitting underwired bras are fine.

I recently got one from them for a special event, but 4 weeks later it no longer fits so it would be very expensive for me to stay in underwired bras all the time!

Anything that digs in on a regular basis can cause blocked milk ducts so do be careful with this.

Narmada - what are "bikini clips" and how do they work please?

I wore my normal bra's through both pregnancies as my size never changed and I breastfed first with no probs. As long as they fit properly and you aren't trapping breast tissue under the wire you are fine. 2 weeks to go until my due date with this one and no signs of any problems with my bra so far.

raeoflight they are like little plastic clips - you can cut the bra straps where they meet the cups at the front, and re-sew them. Hang on, let me try and find a picture:

Have a look here:

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.minervacraftsandfabrics.co.uk/user-data/pics/416151.jpg&imgrefurl=www.minervacraftsandfabrics.co.uk/manu.asp%3Fmanuid%3DPRYM&usg=__BIKysZjIifZiLQLPs8h5Iy-aoIo=&h=276&w=276&sz=6&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=vP6psyOCkcOmDM:&tbnh=114&tbnw=114&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbikini%2Bclasp%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.minervacraftsandfabrics.co.uk/user-data/pics/416151.jpg&imgrefurl=www.minervacraftsandfabrics.co.uk/manu.asp%3Fmanuid%3DPRYM&usg=__BIKysZjIifZiLQLPs8h5Iy-aoIo=&h=276&w=276&sz=6&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=vP6psyOCkcOmDM:&tbnh=114&tbnw=114&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbikini%2Bclasp%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1

Ohhh, that didn't work very well, did it???
If you put bikini clasps into google image, you will get the idea I hope!

Oooh - what a fab idea!! Thanks for that ...

Rae