Keep Britain Breastfeeding – How to Dress to Impress

Thanks for hopping over from Another Bun and welcome to my post for the Keep Britain Breastfeeding Scavenger Hunt Day 3 Dress to Impress. Sponsors today include Milk and Mummy with a £50 voucher, Lorna Drew Maternity who are offering a beautiful set of nursing lingerie and Mummy Makes Milk who is offering a signed copy of her beautiful book for our Grand Prize winner. Over £700 worth of goodies are up for grabs entries via the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

Clothes to feed in was something I didn’t think much about while I was pregnant. I didn’t buy many maternity clothes when I was pregnant. I mostly just bought clothes that were a bit stretchy so I could wear them throughout my pregnancy, thinking I could then still wear them after Tulip was born. However, some of the lovely clothes I bought were dresses and I realised quickly after Tulip was born that I would not be able to feed in these dresses!  Even though I didn’t put on too much weight when pregnant and my belly shrunk quite quickly after birth, at least half my wardrobe was unwearable!

I bought a few nursing clothes online but most nursing clothes double as maternity clothes so are not always flattering on you post pregnancy.  I have found JoJo Maman Bebe nursing clothes to be quite good although they don’t have a huge selection and can be a bit pricey. The one up one down method (where you wear a vest top under a normal top and pull the normal top up and the vest and bra down) can work quite well but I found when it got really hot I couldn’t wear two tops and because I babywear it was sometimes difficult to have to pull the top up if I still had the sling on.

Very sadly, my mum passed away from her second battle with breast cancer when Tulip was two months old. It wasn’t until I had to find a dress for her funeral that I realised how difficult it can be to find breastfeeding friendly dresses. I had ordered a nursing/maternity dress online but when I tried it on it looked a bit like a potato sack and there was no time to order a new dress. No matter the reason for needing an outfit you still want to feel good in it. I ended up having to drag my husband into town (he was wearing Tulip) to find a suitable dress. We spent two hours going back and forth to different shops and all the dresses I liked were not suitable for breastfeeding! Even though I was buying the dress for a sad occasion I wanted it to be something I could wear again and actually liked (we opted not to wear black). I finally found a beautiful floral dress from Cath Kidston. It was way more than I wanted to spend but after two hours of searching and finding nothing I just bought it! It has a little bow at the top that can untie and then you can pull it down a bit.

A few days later I found the facebook group Can I Breastfeed in it?. It’s a group where women who are breastfeeding can post clothes they’ve found that are breastfeeding friendly and ask for suggestions of clothes based on the criteria of what they need. In just five months since the group was formed there are already over 6,000 members. Clearly breastfeeding friendly clothes are much needed and others have had the same problem as me finding them. There have been so many great suggestions on the group, I really have to restrain myself from buying them all!

I like some of the nursing tops that pull up from the middle and and have a covered bit you can pop a boob out of.  But I also like normal clothes that work for feeding too. V-necks and crossover tops are good. I’m also liking the one up one down method more. Especially if you have lovely floaty tops for the up part! I did plan on having more pictures in this post but as most of you probably know, life with a four month old doesn’t always allow you to do all the things you planned!

Some people may say you shouldn’t worry too much about what you are wearing, but I’ve found that something as simple as a well fitting outfit that is easy to feed in can really boost your confidence and make you feel good.  I think it’s important to feel good about yourself especially when you have children as your feelings and attitude towards things (especially body image) rubs off on them!

You can find some more ideas on Dressing to Impress over on Adventures of a Novice Mum blog along with another chance to gain some extra entry points to our grand prize giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway