16 Best Nursing and Pumping Bras for Breastfeeding in 2021

If you’re thinking of breastfeeding, you’ll need (1) a lot of patience and (2) the essentials—starting with the best nursing bras. Aside from accommodating your ever-changing breasts, a supportive and comfortable nursing bra can help provide easy access, catch leaking breast milk, and just help you feel more like yourself. 

Whether you’re nursing your first baby or your third, breastfeeding is anything but easy—or comfortable. But there are plenty of regular and plus-size options—moisture-wicking sports bras that you can pull down, lace bralettes with detachable nursing clips, and T-shirt bras with removable pads, to name a few—that can help you (and your boobs) make the transition.

We know too much choice can be overwhelming, especially if all of it is new to you. So we went to women who have been there—15 moms (slash designers, writers, bloggers, podcast hosts, and chefs)—to find out which brands and bra styles worked best for them during breastfeeding. (They also shared their favorite maternity underwear in case you’re looking for other intimates upgrades.) 

Ahead, shop the 16 best maternity and nursing bras—and in the meantime, learn more about what to look for in nursing bras, when exactly to buy them, and how they can make life much easier for breastfeeding mamas.

Why should I buy a nursing bra?

If you’re thinking about breastfeeding, it’s important to have a bra that fits well, protects you from potential leakage, and allows for easy nursing access. New York–based doula and Motherfigure adviser Robin Douthit, explains that a good nursing bra has twofold appeal: It can provide support “[when] breasts become heavier from colostrum (baby’s first milk), increased blood volume, and breast tissue plump with increased body fluids” as well as easy access to your boobs.

What are the benefits of wearing a nursing bra?

“There are so many different benefits you can get from wearing a nursing bra,” the experts at Hatch tell Glamour. For starters, they explain, you’ll be able to breastfeed without having to entirely take off your bra, because most lingerie pieces for nursing moms come with unique features you won’t typically find in nonmaternity styles. Think wire-free racerbacks, extra hook and eye closures, adjustable straps, space for extra nursing pads, clip-down cups (or drop-down cups), and soft seamless fabrics you can easily pull aside.  

Having the freedom to whip out a breast at a moment’s notice to feed a baby is obviously very important, but so is remembering that your breast size will change throughout the day as you build up and release milk supply. Hatch’s experts also point out that buying a bra that can stretch without losing shape is key to accommodate those fluctuations.

What’s up with pumping bras? 

Not every parent has the ability to nurse a tiny human from their breasts around the clock, and pumping bras can be a great solution for lactating mothers who like to keep extra breast milk on deck. They differ from nursing bras in that pumping bras are “designed to accommodate the pumps themselves with inserts or flaps that you can place, hold in, and pump hands-free,” the experts at Hatch say.