Bravado! Designs Nursing Bras & Accessories
Maternity Bra sizing help: From Bravado
Congratulations, you’re pregnant!
Back in the day when “leaky” described that pesky faucet and “let-down” conveyed feelings when the lunch special was sold out, buying a bra was a fairly routine procedure.
Then, you found out you were pregnant – how fabulous! Of course, the growing, glowing belly you definitely expected. But starting to bust out of the bra size you’ve been for as long as you could remember was probably not what you anticipated, right?!
Your bra size will change.
At some point in your pregnancy (often but not always around the second month), breasts will start becoming larger as they prepare to nurse the new arrival. Some women experience this as a feeling of fullness rather than actual increase in size, and others are very aware of needing a larger cup size. Some women will continue to increase in cup size over the course of their pregnancy, and others find they have an increase during their first trimester, and not again until close to the end of their pregnancy. As your belly increases in size, your rib cage (band) measurement will also likely increase. Women who are petite or carrying high will often experience more increase in rib band than women who are taller or carrying low. Overall, in our experience, most women increase one, two or three cup sizes and one or two rib band sizes over the course of their pregnancy.
After giving birth it changes again.
After giving birth, when your milk “comes in”, your breasts will swell significantly, feel extremely achy and heavy – and you’ll likely experience another increase of one or two more cup sizes from your third trimester. And, expect your cup size to vary before and after each time you nurse your little one.
Typically after 6-12 weeks of nursing, these breast fluctuations settle down. Once you establish your breastfeeding routine, most moms begin to decrease a few cup sizes once more. And around this point, your rib band size may begin to go back to your pre-pregnancy size. This is the size you will likely stay until you finish breastfeeding and you’ll now find you’ve grown one cup size. |
