Bra Interventioners - help with fitting for a maternity bra please!

[ClaireFraser]

Having tried to work it out myself myself via Google and being horrified by the general uselessness of the advice out there, I thought 'twas easiest to ask the experts!

I'm currently 19weeks pregnant and pre-pregnancy wore a 28GG (had a 29" rib cage but prefer a sung band) Over the last couple of months I've had to move into an old 30G that I had as my rib cage had expanded and normal ones were too snug. Unfortunately that has meant I'm down to one bra(30G and on the loosest hooks) and to say it's a struggle getting it washed and dried every other day would be an understatement!

I've just measured myself and I'm 30" underbust and 40" across the bust bent forward.

Hopefully that's the end of my rib cage expansion, but I really can't afford to unnecessarily keep buying new bras over the next few months. With those stats in mind do you think it would be worth me trying a 32FF to offer the potential for rib/bump expansion until the end of the pregnancy?

It feels like it goes against the grain as usually you buy a bra to fit on the loosest hooks not the tightest!

I'd really like to stay in underwired bras and can't face an awful softcup one. I'm about 70miles away from the nearest John Lewis or Bravissimmo and there's no way I'm letting M&S fit me! I do know what a well-fitting bra looks like on me, I'd just really appreciate some advice on making sure I get a well-fitting maternity bra.

Many thanks in advance!

Have you tried a back extender? They enabled me to stay in underwires throughout my pregnancy. I didn't need new bras until my milk came in.

Your measurements would suggest a starting size of a 30gg. At 19 weeks...your ribs are almost certainly going to go up again I'm afraid! Pregnancy is the one time when instead of buying a new bra to fit on the loosest hook, you buy it to fit on the tightest. So it might be worth trying a 30GG and a 32G, and seeing how they work.

Absolutely no need to surrender to the wireless monstrosities - I wore wired the whole way through. As long as they FIT WELL i.e. wires not resting on breast tissue at all, then it's fine. It's also fine when breastfeeding

hi. I can't help with bra intervention however when I was pregnant, like you, I tried to stay in underwired as long as possible. ended up buying several new bras in ever increasing back and cup sizes. The problem I found was that as my pregnancy progessed I found my bump changed shape during the day, so a bra that felt comfy when I got dressed in the morning would leave me in discomfort a few hours later, especially once the baby started wriggling round.

I made it to about 30 weeks when I ended up buying a 2 pack of maternity bras from mamas and papas which were soft and non wired.

www.mamasandpapas.com/product-2-pack-of-sleep-bras/s0009908/type-s/

Just for bed and lazing around I told myself. I can't even begin to describe the relief felt the first time I tried them on! I wore them constantly. So yeah. Stick to what you feel most comfortable with, but give something a bit more forgiving a chance as well while your body is changing so much

Thank you for that Statistically, I'll give those a try as a starting point and see how I get on.

Forward planning a bit here, but how do I go about fitting myself for a nursing bra once the baby's here? Do I applythe normal bra fitting rules once again but just try as cup size bigger to give space for breast pads/expansion?
My plan was to buy normal bras and then convert them into nursing bras.

Thanks for other comments too, I think I will try a couple of soft cup bras for sleeping in soon, hopefully I can find somewhere that has a reasonable size range and at a reasonable price, all those I've noticed so far only seem to start at a 34" back, and surely you want some support even if it is at night - defeats the point of it otherwise!