A Fitting Gone Wrong: Pregnancy Bra Advice That Didn’t Work For Me
All right, as promised, today I’m going to dive in with some of the pregnancy bra fitting advice that *didn’t* work for me!
One very reputable store I went to tried their very best to fit me, but here’s what happened when I wore the new bras I purchased from them. Sorry for the gruesome photo, but this is simply a case where the picture explains it much better:
So what happened here?
That is a photo of my cleavage. You might not guess it from looking at it, but these gashes came from a bra with a center gore that actually sat flush.
The advice from the fitters at this store was to get: 1) a band that fits on the tightest hooks, and 2) a cup size where you can slide a whole hand in the top. Both of these are in order to allow room for you to grow as your pregnancy advances.
They put me in a 32JJ. Here’s how it fit:
Top, l to r: cup on larger left breast; cup on smaller right breast; top of cups
Bottom, l to r: empty space at bottom of cups; band on tightest hook; where my tissue ends vs where the wires end
As you can see, the cups were much bigger than usual on the top, the bottom, and the sides. At the fitting I asked about my breasts not filling up the bottom of the cups. The fitter asked me to readjust my breasts in the cups, but even after doing so it still left empty space. The half-adjustable straps were tightened as far as possible on both sides to try and give some more lift, but the only way I could have gotten enough lift for my breasts to maybe settle in the bottom of the cup would have been if the straps were fully adjustable and tightened up over my shoulders. Of course, then the straps would have been doing too much of the lifting and supporting–remember, 80-85% of the support comes from the band of your bra!– and I don’t think it would have fixed the fit issues. Because this was the cup size where the fitter felt best about how much room was at the top of the cup, though, this is the one she recommended.
After wearing the 32JJ bra one day and taking it off in agony to discover the wreckage of my poor boobs, I noticed that the band had been sitting lower down than where it usually did. I had felt like it was really digging into me all day, but now I saw that it was also riding low. Here’s a photo of the bottom of my breast tissue, with the red line showing where the band had been sitting on me–maybe 1/8-1/4″ further down than usual:
I also purchased the same bra in a 30K because I was worried about how loose the 32 band felt at the time of the fitting, so I tried that bra the next day, starting on the middle hook, to try and get the band to stay up. (I went up in cup size, from the JJ to the K, to get the equivalent volume cup; remember, you gotta go up in cup if you go down in band size to keep the volumes the same!) I still had the same cup issues: gaping at the top, extra space on the bottom and sides. The band still ended up sitting lower, although not as bad as the 32JJ, but dug in terribly. Again, agony. So I went back to the store and asked for help.
This time, they suggested a different style bra in the same size, 32JJ, so I gave that a try. But after wearing it around the hotel room while getting dressed, it started to look the same as the other bras: the band sitting lower, extreme gaping of the cups at the top, empty space on the bottom of the cups, my cleavage line feeling very sore. Nervous I’d rip my tender tissue up even more, I returned the bra.
What went wrong?
Totally confused, I asked Linda from Linda’s Bra Shop about my experience, explaining how the band sat about 1/8-1/4″ lower than usual and the fit of the larger cups. I thought maybe it was that my breasts are so full on top that it just made the bras a poor fit. But Linda had some interesting feedback.
Check back tomorrow for my Q&A with Linda about what happened with my bras and how to avoid fit problems in pregnancy!
Ouch! That looks and sounds very painful. I’ve been stabbed in the centre before, not quite to that extent though. I also used to struggle with my band sitting too low, so whenever I sat down the bottom of the band would actually poke into my flesh a couple of inches below where the band should’ve been sitting. That’s one of the reasons I will not wear a band that’s too loose, even though my boobs could actually deal with a looser band.
I am really interested to see what Linda said!
Yep, there was poking everywhere! Worst few days in bras ever, but happily I found a bra on my own that is super comfy and doesn’t do this to me — the Panache Alexa — and one other that isn’t quite as comfortable but fits nicely so I can rotate. I’ve had them for the last few weeks and hopefully they will take me right up to the due date!
Just posted Linda’s feedback here!
Oh no, you poor thing. So shocked that those fitters could do this to a pregnant woman. I never ever heard of having to leave extra room in a bra during pregnancy – especially during pregnancy you need all the support you can get and the softest bra you can find for than extra-sensitive skin…
I guess specialty pregnancy bras (like Anita) are not available in your cup sizes? During my pregnancies they were the only thing that worked (and at the end my skin was so sensitive that I still took to wearing a thin soft muslin hankerchief between my ribcage and the underwire). If your skin is sensitive, have you tried MamaMio products? I love their “BoobTube” lotion and it is supposed to be safe for pregnancy/nursing.
I know I can be a very difficult fit when I’m not pregnant, so I just figured I’m especially so now and their approach to maternity bra fitting *really* doesn’t work for me!! Luckily I have found a couple of bras on my own that don’t cause me any pain, sit where they should, and properly support my bust. Thank goodness!
You know, I’d LOVE an Anita bra (I know everyone loves their 5035!) but I need a UK J cup, and from what I’ve been able to see they only go up to a US I cup, equivalent to a UK G cup, so they just don’t seem to have an option in my size range. Have you noticed any bigger sizes? Such a bummer!
I’ve actually special ordered two nursing bras from Ewa Michalak so I can get something that hopefully is in my size, as I’m sized out of all the underwired nursing bras I’ve seen. I went for a 60/28JJ and a 60/28K (UK cup sizes) based on my experiences with their 65/30J bras (I reviewed several here). A couple of the fitters I’ve talked to said weeks 30/31 are a good time to fit for a nursing bra, since the size then will likely be close to what you’ll need after the first couple weeks of swelling, so I went with that and I’m crossing my fingers one of the two sizes will work!
I’ve also got a couple of soft cup options (a Royce, the Panache Sophie) but they’ll be mostly for around the house because I just get a terrible shape in soft cups. I have my eye on Bravado as an option that you recommended in another comment, too!
I do have proper maternity bras, the Freya Kelly and Dotty soft cup bras that I reviewed here, and those were really nice up until a couple weeks ago when my bust outgrew them — but I only liked them for lounge and travel bras and not as everyday options since the shape wasn’t as nice as I prefer with underwires. I actually have really liked Panache Cleo bras throughout my pregnancy even though they’re not maternity bras. They’ve been extremely comfortable for me. Go figure!!
I’ll have to check out the Mamma Mio lotion. I’ve been using jojoba oil daily on my bust to help with boob sweat and stretch marks since the second trimester…but I always love trying new products!! Thanks so much for the tip!
omg!! It really happened? Thanks for the advise on wearing the right size bra
Ouch, not nice at all.
Had my son in October, but found myself wearing maternity bras from 4months.
Hope you and bubs doing well.