Three months ago I re-entered the world of non-stop nursing. (I qualify “non-stop” because older daughter never actually gave up nursing before then, but it was down to once a day, sometimes none, so it was a whole different ballgame than nursing a newborn.) It’s amazing how quickly one can forget how much time you will spend with your shirt either pulled up or pulled down and a baby attached to your breast. And how that will happen everywhere. In these moments, the type of nursing wear you have can make all the difference in how easy or hard it is to get that baby on the breast and how comfortable you feel in the moment.
When given the opportunity to review a nursing bra from Hotmilk (they also do maternity wear, but that was no longer relevant for me), I jumped on it. If my son is anything like my daughter, I’ll be using nursing lingerie for a very long time. There are some beautiful nursing bras on Hotmilk, however, I opted to get a nursing camisole. One of the main reasons for this is that I no longer have many nursing shirts and most of my other shirts don’t pull down well (especially not in winter), so I end up pulling up my shirt to nurse. Now I’m no prude, but having my stomach hanging out was not something I was eager to do in the cold winter (I’m a wimp that way). Plus, a good cami can work as a shirt itself in the warmer weather so it’s a better overall deal for me.
I selected this camisole:
(Not Me)
It arrived in time for me to try it out both at home in Canada and on vacation in Hawaii. The first thing I noticed was that it is looser around the stomach than other camis in order to give it the double purpose of nursing and maternity wear. Most camis are very tight (not surprising given the primary purpose of undergarment), but as I mentioned, I like using the camisole as a shirt in warmer weather so the looser style was ideal.
As an undergarment, it works great. It’s comfortable and I can lift up my sweaters to nurse without freezing in the cold or showing off my entire stomach. I imagine the looser fit could be a problem if you were wearing a tighter garment on top, but as there are so many lingerie options at Hotmilk, you could simply select whichever style suits you and your needs best. I don’t do tight on top so this worked great for me. In Hawaii, I got to test it out as its own shirt and it too was great. It was loose enough that I felt comfortable in it (both psychologically and physically) and no one seemed to bat an eye when I unlatched the strap and latched on the boy. In fact, it was very similar to many of the nursing tanks I had before, only without holes too small to actually properly fit a boob through to nurse comfortably.
Although I have only had a limited time wearing it, from what I can tell, the quality is great. I have thrown it in the wash a few times with nothing going wrong, I have put it in the dryer (even though I usually hang dry my camisoles) and put it through the laundry and dryer with the bra pads left inside the bra area, all with no ill-effects. (You are supposed to take the bra pads out, but part of me testing this is seeing how well it holds up when tired moms, like me, don’t think about this and accidentally put it in as is. It’s going to happen so I want to know how well it stands up to that, and stands up it does.)
Overall, I love my Hotmilk nursing cami. I also love the designs and breadth of items for nursing moms (like nursing sports bras!) so you don’t have to feel like you’re settling when buying nursing wear. I have been looking more at the lingerie side of their business because if those items are as comfortable as the cami, then I’m looking forward to both feeling sexy and comfortable at the same time.
Samples from Hotmilk include:
I bought the Reactive Sports Black Nursing Bra – Flexi Underwire. If you are looking for a sports bra you can nurse in, this is NOT it. And if you think the models are representative of the size this bra is compatible with, you have been deceived. The models are only “what was available on the day” (Hotmilk’s communication to me) and do not represent a suitable target audience. I correlate with the models in the marketing (12D-DD) and yet the bra cannot function as a nursing bra unless I crudely misshape the bra (which will ruin the product) and my breast (it gets stretched enough, added distortion will certainly ruin the breast tissue and lead to stretch marks and lost elasticity) to attempt to expose the aereola and nipple, which still aren’t fully exposed. From what I can discern, this bra has been designed for larger ladies with pliable breasts. But even still, if you cannot elevate your nipple etc above half way you still won’t be able to nurse in this bra. On top of this, they won’t refund me because it was bought at an outlet store. To be fitted and have the product not function as marketed and then not allow a return and refund (store requires Hotmilk’s approval) is a crime in my opinion. Like a baby doesn’t cost enough, I’ve now thrown away $80 to a useless product. So much for thinking it was an investment.
Keep to Bonds maternity bras ladies, this product is awful and I do not recommend any of us waste money testing out any of their other ‘nursing’ bras.