Nursing Bras

Okay gentlemen (esp my dad) this post is for the moms and mom's to be out there!

Where there are new moms there are babies needing to be fed, and where there are babies needing food, there are nursing bras. All nursing bras are not created equal. This post is an excerpt from a conversation a bunch of us who are part of the City of Ottawa Breastfeeding Buddies Program had a short while ago. If you have comments to add, please do so in the comments section. I'll incorporate some into the post as appropriate.

We have women in our group that are all shapes and sizes. For the sake of this post we’ll talk about small medium and large. There is no scale to this. Just put yourself in the section that seems to fit.

In Ottawa many women spoke of the selection at the major department stores such as Sears and the Bay “The best ones that I found for my size and price 42D/DD was actually a boxed platex nursing bra from Sears....go figure!”. The Bay does do custom fitting and there are a range of brands that have very good nursing bras (albeit only a limited number from each brand) including Warners, Playtex and so on. “I'd suggest that a new mom try a couple of different ones because the opening and closing one-handed may be important, especially if she doesn't want to be flashing anyone at the mall. (Oh yeah, and not all of them look like they belong on somebody's granny!)”.

There were many mentions of Marianne's in the Westgate shopping centre. They are very helpful, have a reasonable selection, and they do customized fitting. They have a wide variety of sizes from bras for women with small breasts to women with large breasts. Some of the women did feel that they are on the expensive side though.

Then there was the discussion of the different Bravado bras. While some women swore by them “I'd definitely echo the Bravado recommendation - I've worn nothing but Bravado for almost 5 years now and can't praise them highly enough.” Some others did not “will throw my opinion in there too coming from a larger chested mom and someone who was a size 14. I loved the Bravado bras and Milk Face! Although I only wore the Bravado at night. I found that even their models for fuller breasts weren't supportive enough for me during the day. “


Here is a “maybe” for Bravado: “My "girls" were never overly large and I still found that the bravado plus style bra (this one here http://www.bravadodesigns.com/product.asp?ID=21) was not very supportive. It was comfortable and cotton and stretchy if I was engorged, so great in those ways. In terms of support, not so much. I did like that when I popped down the clip to expose my breast he was not aiming at a small space. My entire breast was available. Others might not like that so much.

The same comments apply to the lifestyle bra http://www.bravadodesigns.com/product.asp?ID=32. It is pretty (so nice to have a pink nursing bra, made me feel pretty) but still not especially supportive.


The supreme nursing bra is a thing of science. This thing kept my girls (a size 36E) looking nice and perky http://www.bravadodesigns.com/product.asp?ID=23. The down side is that it is not made of cotton and it has a seam across the nipple. Who does that? For $65 though, it is a truly marvellous bra.”

The Bravado bras are sold in a number of places in Ottawa including www.Milkface.com, Boomerang Kids, online at: http://www.bravadodesigns.com They ship quickly, and there's lots of info on how to choose the right size, etc. And they're Canadian.

For the small and medium sized ladies out there, there is another option that is a tank top and built in bra. “I loved my Glamourmom tank tops http://glamourmom.com/ (btw, if you are tall, get the ones with the lace at the bottom, they are longer). They offer great coverage and medium support. I have about 6. I bought my Glamourmom bras on Ebay brand new for about $34 US. They were for sale at milkface.com for $55 CDN the last time I looked.

From another mom “I'm fascinated. I got one of the Glamourmom corsettieres in medium (which I am) and my darling husband commented that my breasts were somewhat lower than usual. Thanks honey, just what I needed to hear. But he is right. Nowhere near enough support (I'm a "D" though, is that large?) for me. So anyway, it's not you, it's the top. Blame the top. ;)”

Also, A few lactation consultants in private practice sell nursing bras. Give them a call to find out.