Advice about nursing bras

It pays to choose your nursing bras carefully: they need to be robust, comfortable and quick to open – looks are irrelevant

The day I bought my first maternity bra, a colleague had been shopping for underwear too. She held up her purchase for the office to admire: a dinky grey Hanro ensemble with delicate white trim.

I extracted my new nursing bra from its box. Was there some kind of optical illusion going on? It looked enormous draped across my desk – no room for my PC. No wonder my colleagues snorted.

Gravity defiance
Yet such a garment is essential if you're planning to breastfeed. The pre-baby bra was merely required to hoik up and (possibly) titillate; the maternity model has a far more demanding job description.

We want a bra that's not constricting when we wake up brimming with milk – yet offers snug support as we slowly deflate during the day. We want room to slip in a breast pad, but not so much excess space that the pad drops out from the bottom of a T-shirt just when the in-laws call round.

The feeding aspect
Babies aren't the most patient of creatures. We want to extract a breast without fumbling like some cack-handed teenage boy with his first girlfriend. A three-month-old infant won't be palmed off with a 'hang on a minute – the zip's jammed'.

When feeding, we'd rather the bra allowed us to be discreet, not flop out acres of boob. As for looks, we want an attractive style that's not too eye-popping – especially when baby's snacking in the park.

Practicality over glamour
Beverley, mother to Rory, three and Calum, 20 months, says, 'My best-looking bra came from the Jojomaman catalogue. But the most practical – which stood by me through feeding each of my sons for a year – was a sturdy Triumph.

'Friends kept telling me about ads on the Internet for sexy maternity bras in leopard and zebra print. Frankly, you're unlikely to feel like a sex bomb when your breasts are bigger than your baby's head. So I went for a simple style in plain white that I could wear under anything.'

According to Beverley, top priority is being able to undo clips with one hand so you don't drop the baby. For Joanna, mother to Toby, seven months, discretion is important: 'I tried a zippy one but kept catching a nipple in the teeth.

'A friend lent me one that unhooked at the front but I felt that my overripe boobs were tumbling out. For the last few months I've had a Mothercare 40F – I was 36C in the dim and distant past – with plastic clip fasteners on the cups. It's comfy and easy to do up if the doorbell rings.'

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