Y’all know by now that I love shopping. However, I don’t really love shopping for clothes for myself. I just find it boring. I’m guilty of “the mom uniform” most days – ponytail/bun, leggings (jeans if I’m feeling fancy), t-shirt. That said, when breastfeeding, a little more thought has to go into your wardrobe. And by thought, I mean, “How easy will it be to pull out a boob in this?” So after breastfeeding two babies, I have found a few favorite breastfeeding wardrobe essentials that I’m going to share with you today. All of these can be found on Amazon (see affiliate disclosure above) except for a few items which will be linked if possible (#notsponsored).
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Best Nursing Bra
I pretty much live in these nursing bras and have them in a few colors. They’re comfortable and prevent me from leaking milk all over my shirts. They’re medium-support and don’t do much for shaping but for my t-shirt wearing self they’re perfect (and affordable).
Best Pumping Bra
I wear this Kindred Bravely bra every day that I work. The support is fantastic and even when I’m running late to a “pump break” and feeling really, um, full, they still hold the gals in fine without any leaking. I love the fact that I can easily slip the flanges for my Spectra S2 pump into the bra by pulling down one set of clasps, and can breastfeed in it to by pulling down a different set of clasps. They’re a little pricier than the regular nursing bras I wear so I reserve this one for days I will be pumping (in other words, work days).
Best Nursing Tanks
I think I mentioned these in an earlier post, however I love the MAMA brand nursing tanks from H&M and basically lived in them during both of my maternity leaves. I also wear these under non-nursing tops in lieu of a bra sometimes so that I can just pull my regular shirt up and pull the clasp on these down to feed babies without having my whole back and abdomen exposed. They come in multi-packs with lots of color options, too.
Favorite Nursing Tops
These are not specifically for nursing, but shirts with buttons like this and this are so simple to breastfeed in, and don’t scream “I’m a mom,” which is nice sometimes.
As for official nursing tops, I really like these ones from Old Navy. The material is thick and substantial but doesn’t make me hot and sweaty (important when a human is latched to your body all day), and again, they come in a few colors. They’re simple to whip the girls out of – just lift the outer layer up and pull the inner layer inward towards the middle of your chest. The rest of you stays pretty covered up without a lot of fuss.
Favorite Nursing Dress
I’m not much of a dress-wearer, however I had to buy one for a family event recently (which ended up getting canceled anyway thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic), and realized just how hard it is to find a non-maternity-looking nursing-friendly dress! But tried-and-true Target came through for me with this cute dress. Any crossbody style dress would work similarly, but this one had a tie and a clasp that kept everything in place but was super easy to loosen/undo for nursing Adeline in – and it doesn’t look like a mom-dress at all!
Favorite for Nighttime Nursing
I pretty much sleep in shorts and a tank or tee at night, regardless of whether or not I’m breastfeeding, however, especially in the early days of breastfeeding, leaky boobs are a problem at night. I’m not a huge fan of wearing bulky breast pads to bed (or anywhere) and thankfully have been able to (mostly) control leaks at night with some light support from these Medela nursing bras. They’re super comfortable and don’t feed at all like wearing a bra and are really easy for middle-of-the-night feedings – no clasps.
Breastfeeding is a beautiful, difficult, emotional, painful, amazing journey and anything we can do to feel better about it and make it easier is worth it, so I hope this post helps some of you mamas out there in some way!
If you’re interested in my other breastfeeding essentials, I did a whole post on it which includes tips that worked for me and a lactation cookie recipe. Find it here.
Thanks for stopping by! If you have a favorite nursing-friendly wardrobe staple, leave it in the comments below!
