nursing wear - did you use them?

[csa]

hi. just doing a quick survey for a friend who is thinking of starting up a nursing wear business. did you use them when you were bf and are there nice ones out there? appreciate any input you may have. actually, on a personal level, has anyone found any good nursing clothes anywhere outside london - mail order or otherwise? all i have seen are rather limited ... mothercare and bumpto3... and would actually like to get some so feeding in public is more discreet.

I didn't use them, but if anyone could invent stuff so it would be possible to bf twins discreetly in public, I'd kiss them!

I found them a bit ridiculous tbh. A friend gave me a nursing top but the hole my boob was supposed to go through was too small for my boobs! I just wore tops I could pull up

Hi csa - fancy bumping into you here!!!

I used 2 bursing t-shirts which I bought in Singapore (!!!) - there's a great website called moms in mind or something like that.

They did v-neck slightly shaped and fitted t-shirts and some great batik - tie dye tops (the tropix range). They have an affiliated company which does some great looking nappy wraps too.

The t-shirts I bought were too warm for the tropics (the double layer bit) but are great for the UK. Except that in the UK, I tend to go into Mother and Baby rooms.

They do mail order too or you could just get any friends coming over from Singapore to bring you some.

Here's a link

I got 2 tops from JoJoMamanBebe but didnt really use them much as I prefer tops I could lift. I also bought a lovely black BF dress but hardly wore it.

Strike me as a touch unnecessary but the pregnancy/baby market is full of stuff like that so guess there must be a market for it.

nursing, not bursing!

I have loads of nursing shirts, and I used them a lot, particularly with DS1, who fed everywhere. The ones I like are all from Thyme Maternity in Canada - they have a fairly fancy system, of a flap and two slits, which works very well, you can stop feeding, and you'll be all covered up. I have one shirt from Blooming Marvellous which has poppers. I always forget to do them back up, and end up showing the postman rather more than he'd want to see!

I don't know why there aren't many nursing tops in the UK, and those there are, are annoying. I got fed up with my Thyme ones, first time around, and ordered more from the US. All the double-slit types are fine.

Never bought any nursing tops, just used loose tops incl my old maternity ones. Did look at the ones in some catalogues but couldn't face the expense and horribleness. had a couple of nursing bras but in the end thought they were so horrible and useless that just wore maternity bras and pulled the cups down. but then again i only breastfed until 21 weeks so longer-term bfers might be more interested.

hard to say whether nicer stuff would have encouraged me to invest? i would guess not in my case.

i bought and wore one black nad one white nursing bras whilst BF (bought them from Mothercare and they were very comfy)

hi all, thanks for your input. it seems that nursing wear does not seem really popular or easily available in the uk. which is driving which i wonder...?

pam, funnily enough, i have got some tops from the website you said. but i find their designs a little boring and as you said, a little too many layers.

what do you all think of this one ?

I would have loved to have had some, but not only are they difficult to get over here, they also only come in small sizes. I'm large and have big boobs so the tops would have been useful for discreet feeding, but they're not available over size 16.

Many of those look really cute - there isn't enough information about how the nursing bits work, though. Is it single slit? Or double? Or what?

good point NotQuiteCockney. they come in various forms - some with zips on the side, some single layer with button and some double layer i think.

hi Hausfrau, have just CAT you.

I bought 2 nursing bras from mothercare-1 black and 1 white. They were quite ugly but they did the job. I also thought they were very expensive!!
I always thought someone should make a top with the same kind of straps as nursing bras. That might make bf in public easier

Like the look of some of those tops but they're a little skimpy for me (in the cold northern parts of the UK!)

I think the availability or lack of nursing wear in the UK is probably down to the numbers who choose to breastfeed. If you're only planning to feed for 6 weeks, you might think it's no point spending too much on nursing wear, if however you plan to feed for 6 months or longer, then it's probably worth while.

Then you've got the mother and baby rooms and some women may just think it's easier to use those.

So a combination of these factors means the market for such garments in the UK is small hence the high prices!

According to a Finnish friend, public breastfeeding is very common in Scandinavia and no one bats an eye lid or makes comments so I would expect that the market for nursing tops there wouldn't be too big either, however because there is this public acceptability, the rates of breastfeeding are higher in Scandinavia than in the UK.