When I was offered the Bravado Essential Nursing Tank for review, I have to be honest that I wasn’t sure how much I’d use it in day-to-day life – I mean, I have nursing bras already, I find sleeping in baggy t-shirts easier when breastfeeding, so what use would I have for a nursing vest?
Past experiences with tank top style bras have not been great. I’m currently wearing an E cup (can you believe I used to be a C before kids?), so proper support is a necessity. My worry with nursing vest tops is that they wouldn’t be as supportive as my nursing bras.
Well, it turns out that not only is it actually very useful in day-to-day life, but to my surprise, the Bravado tank top offers the same amount of support as any of my nursing bras. As Bravado say on their website, it’s a proper built in bra, not a flimsy shelf bra. It’s a firm fit and everything stays in place (and looks a bit smaller, which is a great thing).
I am a long-time subscriber to the ‘two top’ clothing method when breastfeeding (vest underneath a normal top). Any vest will do as long as it can stretch enough to be pulled down over your breast, but I find myself using the Bravado tank top much more than my usual vests, as it negates the need for three clothing layers – instead of bra, vest, and top, you only need vest and top. The Bravado vest gives a much better shape than any of my over-stretched, cheap cotton vests could offer. Everything looks a bit more tidy and a bit less wobbly when I’m wearing the Bravado vest. If I had the nursing tank top in every colour (it currently comes in black, brown, white, pink, and purple), I would happily lose my ‘normal’ vests altogether.
The body of the vest is long enough to cover a bump during pregnancy. During the latter weeks of my pregnancy with Rory, I wore the Bravado tank top under a shorter top a lot. Here’s me wearing the vest at 36 weeks pregnant (excuse the PJ bottoms, I practically lived in pyjamas during the third trimester – oh , the joys of working from home):
The one thing I don’t particularly like about the vest are the clips for the drop down cups. They aren’t the standard clips, but a different system where you have to twist the clip through a hole to fasten. I find it really quite fiddly and impossible to do one-handed. As I often use two hands anyway (to rearrange breast pads, etc after a feed), this feature is not a massive inconvenience for me, although I do wonder why Bravado hasn’t use the same, standard clipping system as the other Bravado bras that I’ve tried.
The Bravado Essential Nursing Tank Top is available to buy on the Bravado website and costs £35.90
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I was sent the Bravado Essential Nursing Tank Top free of charge for the purpose of this review.
2 comments
I found the same thing with the clips. I think it’s because it’s supposed to be “discreet” so it doesn’t look like you’re wearing a nursing vest but really, who cares? It’s going to be pretty obvious when you’ve got your boob out with a baby attached anyway!
I keep meaning to get a purple one as I liked my review one so much 🙂
I’d quite like a purple and a white one. Ah, that makes sense about the clips. I suppose they are more discreet, but as you say, it’s not something that bothers me.