Maternity vs. Nursing Bra

[Laela]

I'm 5 months pregnant and need to get a new bra! All of my current ones are tight and painful. I am planning on breastfeeding once the baby comes, so should I just start off with nursing bras? Or is a maternity bra more comfortable right now?

Truthfully, last time I was breastfeeding, the nursing bras I used were so difficult to manage I never even bothered unsnapping them, I just yanked the whole thing up. Needless to say, I did not keep them. But I may actually try to invest in something better this time.

Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on this.

[Davids-Coco]

I didn't buy mat bras. I just bought a couple, a couple of times. That worked well for me. I didn't jump to nursing bras until DS was born. I have now been wearing nursing bras and nursing tanks for almost 17 mo... and honestly, that skews my opinion to "say stay in regular bras".

FWIW, the bravado nursing tanks, and bras (except the essential) are easy to operate. ;) I have also had luck with Bella Materna. And they are way easy to use.

ETA: The bella materna I am wearing says it works well as a mat bra too because it is stretchy. I can see that... it is the seamless cup nursing bra and does have a wire (so just be careful of underwires while your milk supply is establishing).

[sidmand]

Most people say to skip the maternity bras. If you need something to get you through, I would just buy a couple of cheapish bras in the next size since you don't really know what size you're going to need in a nursing bra.

So far I've been able to get away with most of my regular bras (some were pretty stretched to begin with!) and bra extenders have worked on some too.

I think last time I bought some fairly inexpensive bras that were a bit stretchy and I figured might work as nursing bras in a pinch.

[kcampbell]

Definately skip them and just get some larger sized bras or go right to the nursing ones if you find some you like. I just used nursing bras when I went up in size and was quite happy that way. Good luck

[MontrealMum]

I would also recommend that you skip buying maternity bras and see if you could just get some cheap regular bras at TJ Maxx or the Nordstrom Rack or something. I don't want to badmouth the maternity clothing industry, but I think maternity bras are a scam. Save your money for the nursing bras! I went WAY up in size once I gave birth and had to invest quite a bit at that point. You just can't predict how big you are, or aren't, going to get. By the way, I like Bravado and Glamourmom for nursing bras and tanks. Bravado, especially, has a wide range of sizes; something I had a hard time finding with other brands.

[SAHMIL]

JC Penney always has great deals on nursing bras. I got a few of them there for about $8-10 each. (I even just went with the Penney's brand) They work great! They also have coupons almost every week. And as for maternity clothes, I got my whole maternity wardrobe there for under $250 by shopping the clearance sections. Heck, I depend on their kids' department these days to buy for my DC. They have great sales!