Being a lactating mom limits your wardrobe choices – a lot of times the key consideration in what you wear isn’t whether it fits well or is cute, but whether it allows easy access for your breasts! One shirt that I recently tried is the Loyal Hana nursing top. It facilitates access to your breast with zippers, which allows for different designs than most nursing shirts.
Image credit Loyal Hana. Used with permission.
(Transparency note: I was given a Christy Nursing Top by Loyal Hana to review. I wore it twice before writing this post, and the opinions here are my own. I was not otherwise compensated for writing this post. This post may contain affiliate links. More info here.)
One thing that can be annoying about pumping is that it really limits what you can wear. A lot of times, your options are:
- Wear a shirt that you pull up while you pump (and then you have to deal with cold pump parts against your skin),
- Pull your shirt down, stretching it out, or
- Taking your clothes off completely (i.e. a dress that zips up the back), which is both annoying and chilly.
I have been spent about half of the last six years lactating for one or another of my three kids, and I wish I would have heard of Loyal Hana sooner. I have spent so much time sitting freezing in the lactation room because I wanted to wear a dress with a high neckline and back zipper! Apparently, that was all avoidable.
Each dress or top is designed to be a maternity and nursing top; to facilitate nursing (or, for us exclusive pumpers, pumping) zippers on both sides near the breasts allow easy access without taking the whole garment off. It’s an awesome idea!
The shirt that I tried was the Christy. It is basically a normal cotton top, but with the side zippers. The zippers are the same color as the shirt, and very small, so they aren’t obvious at all. I would imagine that if someone noticed them they would think they were a fashion thing rather than a utility thing.
As far as utility for pumping goes, the blouse/zippers worked great! I wore my hands-free bra on top of it, unzipped the sides, and I was ready to go.
I wasn’t sure how what a combo maternity/nursing shirt would look like, but after putting it on, I understood. Without being too baggy, it has enough room that it will work as a maternity shirt from your first trimester to probably mid-way through the third, depending on how big you get. (I would guess I could have worn this until about 32 weeks, and my belly “outgrew” a lot of my maternity shirts by the end of my pregnancies.) I also think that this shirt would be good at hiding a post-partum belly, and obviously the zippers are key for making this a functional nursing top.
As for downsides, my husband made a lot of “easy access” jokes, but hopefully your partner is more mature than mine! Additionally, the price points can be a bit high. However, I do think you can get a lot of wear out of these. They are really well-constructed and will last through multiple kids.
Have you tried a Loyal Hana nursing top? Tell us what your experience was?
Note: This post was originally included a giveaway; I updated it on 6/9/2018 to reflect current product information.
