Am I the only one who HATES maternity bras?

I just HATE HATE HATE them.

They are so uncomfortable! I've tried on every different one in town and none of them fit! Everything from the el-cheapo ones, to the designer, price-tag-might-kill-you kind, and nothing fits! I'm very short in the shoulder, and am normally a 12DD because I have wide set breasts rather than big breasts. This makes me pretty much ineligible for t-shirt bras and most sports bras, and now it would also seem maternity bras fall into that category too. The cups all come almost right up on top of my shoulder, and the banding underneath is so bloody stiff and thick, and more restrictive than supportive, whether they put me in a 12 or a 14. If I don't have underwire in my bra my poor puppies just feel like they're hanging foul, and after a while they just plain hurt!

Has anyone else had this problem? I went to Trade Secret and picked up a Loveable underwire free moulded cup bra just for sleeping, and removed the plastic bit out of the sides and its good for a while, but I can't wear it all day. I've got one bra that my mum gave me thats just a bigger size than my usual thats great, but can you do that? Can you just, wear a bigger size? Is it 'safe'? Its driving me round the bend having to wash the same bra every night!

I would like to be able to BF but since 4 generations of my family's women have all been lactose intolerant until the age of 4-5, and we're expecting girls, I'm pretty sure that I wont have the option anyway.

Nope, When i stopped BF'ing i burnt all mine, i hate them with a passion, i cant stand them, they make me itchy feel unsupported, Just everything about them is AARRGGHHH :wall:

Have you tried Triumph? They do a style called Pretty Mama that I have a few pairs of, it doesn't have two cups but rather it's like a soft bra top.

I also hate them! I'm an E cup and find they do nothing!

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, the problem with underwire when pg is when your bb's grow the underwire presses into the sides of them and that's where the milk ducts are. So if you go a bigger size, the underwire should still fit comfortably under your arm rather than digging in! So it should be ok. Apart from that it might get uncomfy on your tum!

Good luck, they are so crap!

xo

Oh yes the itchiness! I only had them on in fitting rooms and was like 'ARGH GET IT OFF!' I might as well have been wearing wool berber carpeting!

Mrs P - Yep, but because of it being a soft cup I felt either completely unsupported in the bigger size, or squished wherever flesh would fit in when they tried a smaller size. Plus, it came up really high on my chest, which would mean I couldn't wear any of my clothes without the world seeing it (all I have is empire line, v-neck type summer dresses, you can get away with that here!) But I find triumph is just a bad brand on me anyway, so I wasn't too surprised.

You don't have to wear maternity/BFing bras during pregnancy, or even while BFing - I have small boobs so found a cheap brand that fit me adequately (my pet hate was the wide straps - I'm in QLD too so spend the majority of my life in spaghetti-strap singlets and shorts), but I only wore them at night and when I first started BFing, once I got the hang of the whole deal I just learned how to squish a boob out the top of a padded underwire bra and fed just fine for 6 months. Before my babies arrived, I'd only wear them around the house for comfort, but if I was even popping out to the shops to grab a carton of milk I'd switch to a normal underwire because I never felt properly supported in them.
Don't panic too much about maternity bras, if you feel more comfortable in your usual bras (even buying the same stuff you normally wear in a larger size to allow for extra pregnancy boobage), then just wear them. I never had issues with my milk or mastitis etc from wearing underwire/padded bras so just take the post-pregnancy ordeal as it comes :) I hope you find something that works for you - the clips are really handy for convenient BFing but I totally understand how you feel about wire-free bras feeling itchy and unsupportive! x

I HATE THEM... I hate how they seem to pull your boobs down so you have grandma cleavage!!!!! GRR! And hotmilk are too $$ for me (not that they seem any better!)

I went from 10A to now being a 12E but can't even show them off cause they just look saggy n gross... and EVERYTHING is uncomfortable! Bras always have been on me

i was a 12DD from 8 weeks pregnant and for the first year of bf-ing. The only maternity bra that worked for me, was a Triumph really lacey number, that i hated the look of (so frumpy), but actually was the only bra that made my breasts and back stop hurting. So i ended up buying a few of those (resentfully, cos they looked gross on). but i begrudgingly had to admit the bra fitter was right, i was comfy in them.

As a 12DD, i had breastfeeding camisoles (shelf bras) for sleeping in.

As a 12DD, i didn't find that breastfeeding tops with so called "built in bras" helped me, i think they are for C's and B's. I much preferred to wear a proper maternity bra, then wear a bf-ing top (like Nuvo Maternity make), that open FROM THE BOTTOM (using double front, so your tum is still covered), rather than the ones that open FROM THE TOP (and expose more of you).

My LO is now 4yo, and i wish i had the money to replace all my mat. bras with normal bras. i'm still wearing the mat. bras, cos it's better than nothing. i'm wide set too.

i never thought i'd be able to produce milk, or breastfeed either. it was a complete miracle to me, that we were able to do it. having a midwife who was pro-bf-ing, and visited me for the first six weeks after bilby arrived, was such a help to that, having someone to show me what to do, spur me on when it all seemed too hard. other things went wrong with her arrival, but amazingly, in spite of all that other stuff, we managed the bf-ing. it was our silver lining. so i say, with stuff like this, you only really know, when you're in that exact situation. i wish you all the best of luck. Prepare for ANY eventuality LOL, cos with bubs, you never really know, until it's actually happening. all you can do, is try stuff. whatever works, you stick with, whatever doesn't work, you try something else. and there is support available.

1800 686 2 686 for free helpline (Australian Breastfeeding Association)
lactation consultants (there is a big difference in speaking to a private LC, i've met hospital LC's who get taught that bf-ing finishes at 3 months old!!!!!).
don't assume doctors know about bf-ing - it's not included in medical school.
the only people who actually are schooled up about breastfeeding, seem to be LC's and ABA people. (this shocked me).
i also good helpful bf-ing advice from private midwives

the stuff i got told by the midwives, on the labour ward (different ones every shift) - that was so confusing, so conflicting. i was glad i had ONE person i could turn to, one CONSISTENT person, my midwife. If all i had to go on was my GP, the labour ward middies, etc, i would have given up real fast.

bf-ing is a sharp learning curve
there are challenges
the difference is, most people you'll come into contact with at the time, will tell you to give up pretty quick
but the ABA, private LC's, don't tell you to give up, instead they tell you how normal it is, and provide you with things to try, to get over that challenge. Being given tools to work with e.g being shown how to hold your baby to facilitate easier latching, helped me so much. They were realistic, that it's a new skill, won't be learnt immed, takes practice.

i didn't assume i WOULD be breastfeeding. i just wanted to try it, just in case i could manage it. if you can, that's great. if you can't, your bub will still survive on formula. i figured, even if all i did, was give her the colustrum (first few days), even that would be a positive. All you can do is try, educate yourself as best you can whilst pregnant, so you know where to get help when you need it, ask for help when you need it and see what happens.

I think I'll just get bigger bra's. The one mum lent me is a 14DD and its great, I actually have one in my usual size in the same style so I might just go pick up a bunch of them, and then when I'm done Mum can have them all! I've done the same with clothes, just buying what I want in a bigger size, so I'll be able to offload them to her too lol I have one of those shelf top maternity singlets but its just so uncomfortable and itchy!

Gigi - Like I said, its more a matter of whether the babies will actually be able to have dairy at all. Not a single female in the last 4 generations of my maternal side of the family (possibly more but there are no records before the turn of the 19thC) have been able to have dairy including breast milk and cows milk until well after the baby years. The males, all fine, but it just seems to be something that happens with the girls! If they can, great ill just pull down the strap, no worries, but I'm banking that they most likely wont be able to anyway and if thats the case I don't want to waste money on uncomfortable maternity bra's!

Bex - I'm sure they are not! You just need to find a great bra to fit your new girls! Buying for small boobs and big boobs - hell even just putting your bra on - is a whole new world, you just need a good tour guide and plenty of travel options lol

Glam - Good to know someone who didn't have issues with not using them, I feel so gipped because my half sisters are like 'Oh they're so comfy you'll never want to get out of them' and I'm like...wtf planet are you living on? lol

I found the best nursing/maternity bra was Anita 5068. It's like a normal bra, has underwire. Only difference is you can use it for BF as it has the drop down cup. These were by far the best investment I made. I wore them pregnant and BF and only ever wore these, I had two, one black and one white. I bought mine online from a US store. I am a funny size pregnant and BF as well. I was 12E (my normal size is 10-12C non pregnant)and these bras did the trick. They are a microfibre sort of material, no lace and really just looked nice on too.

I wore them all the time and they were still good quality enough at the end to give away, in fact another BB member snapped them up.

I am honestly so shocked! I bought my first proper maternity bra yesterday and I think I am in love. I cannot imagine how I would ever go back to wearing a normal underwire bra ever again! Have any of you tried HotMilk?

Maybe you are actually a bigger size now than you think? But I do agree, maternity bras suck! I've been wearing them for the last 4 years, and have only found 2 that I like!

I got fitted for them at pretty much every underwear store in town, and the 14 in maternity bras is too big, so I'm still technically a 12. I went to 4 different places and all the ladies who fitted me pegged me as a 12F in maternity...I hope they don't get any bigger or I'll start to look like a pg Pamela Anderson. If my chest wasn't so wide I'd be nowhere near a D cup normally, but I need it purely for the width or the wire digs into my poor boobies!

Brogeybear - I am so jealous of you right now! lol

Heather - I'll do some googling, even if I get one and its not right I'm sure I'll be able to find someone on here who might have better luck than me!

Mothercare dot com dot au has awesome nursing bras so soft not itchy at all, and come in all sizes. I had triumph before so itchy I got rid of them. If you are a 12 DD for example you could get a 14 E which will be more like your size when you have the bubba. I always go 1-2 sizes up when I give birth.

I have always just worn regular bras whilst pregnant and only swap to maternity when I actually have the baby and it is nessecary for access for feeding. When I do wear maternity I buy either Hot milk or Triumph - they cost a packet (about $80 per bra) but are the most supportive ones I have found on the market in my size (14G whilst last breastfeeding). None of them are as supportive as a real bra, but they are as close as I have found.