5 Ways to Make your Wardrobe Breastfeeding and Pumping Friendly

Getting dressed while nursing, always comes with an extra layer of thought and mind-changing “Is this easy to breastfeed in?!” “Can I pump in this at work with out taking my shirt off?!”

More specifically, can I wear this and nurse/pump wherever I am (IE not have to undress).

Along with that, I don’t want to have a nursing-specific wardrobe that I won’t need most of my life. I want to be able to wear my everyday clothes. I have slowly started to become a minimalist, after all. So what do I do? Here are my tips to ensure nursing and choosing your daily wear are not a hassle.

5 Tips to Make your Wardrobe Breastfeeding (or Pumping!) Friendly:

1. Tank tops - invest in nursing tank tops, or tanks that pull down easy. If I’m going to invest somewhere in something specific, this is it. I don’t want a ton of “nursing things” like I said, but tanks are easy to store and cheaper than shirts, sweaters, dresses, etc and can be a fantastic base item so you are able to wear all of your other clothes. Now, you can wear cardigans, blazers, sweaters, coat-igans, or other tops over the tank. I’ve done things where I will pull UP the shirt on top, and pull down the tank, and make a nice little entry way for the boob. Obviously, this is easier with an open shirt/sweater, jacket or button-down shirt, too. And if its warm enough - I’ve layered the nursing tank with a cute, larger, t-shirt or just wear it on it’s own.

2. The obvious one? Button-down shirts. With these, you can unbutton as far as you need. You can wear them just as you did before you were nursing. Easy.

3. Loose tops and crop tops. I buy almost all of my clothes a size bigger just because I like the fit. But the bonus with tops is that it makes the top nursing-friendly as well. When something is a little bigger or flowy-er, I can pull it up easily, and it even drapes nicely like a nursing cover or scarf would. I’ll tuck them into jeans, yoga pants, long skirts, so they look put together when I am wearing them, and they can be untucked when needed for the job. With CROP TOPS specifically, I wear these over top of a tank top so my stomach is still covered, but then I can pull down the tank, and the crop top naturally doesn’t require much pulling up. It’s fantastic!

4. I find maxi dresses to naturally be a good option also. They tend to have looser top/straps that you can easily pull down. I love looking at American Eagle and Z Supply for looser, flowy dresses for this reason. These are better for the warmer months, but like in the options above, I have layered maxi dresses with sweaters and sneaks to make them winter-ready.

5. Get a couple CLIP DOWN nursing bras. I have the really simple black ones from Motherhood Maternity, that I got on sale for $10 each. With all of the above options (outside of the tank top), these give the baby EASY access to the boob when you are dealing with the pulling ups and downs of the other items. You know this bra will clip RIGHT DOWN, easily, so there is access. These bras have no padding, wires, etc. I wear pads in mine to catch any milk, anyway, and I find that anything extra in the bra just makes me uncomfortable. Also - the bras I like for nighttime and home-time are the Calvin Klein cotton sports-like-bras with no padding that you find at like, Marshalls. Super easy to pull down and manipulate.

You are doing such an amazing job for your little one and the stress of getting dressed shouldn’t be on your mind. I also want you to save $MONEY$ by keeping most of your wardrobe in tact! I hope these tips help and if you have any others, please drop them below!