Nursing Clothes by Occasion
Getting dressed is simple at home and complicated everywhere else. These are our nursing and pumping styles grouped by where you are going, whether that is a wedding, a Sunday service or a full week of work. Every piece opens discreetly for nursing or pumping, so the outfit stays on.
What to Wear to a Wedding While Breastfeeding
A wedding is a long day, and somewhere in the middle of it your baby is going to be hungry. These dresses are built for that. Bow-back and hidden-zipper styles open at the bust for nursing or pumping, so you are not hunting for a private room and stepping out of your dress halfway through the reception. They read as ordinary formalwear, most have pockets, and the midi lengths stay comfortable through a ceremony, dinner and dancing.
Nursing Dresses for Church, Easter and Family Gatherings
Easter, Christmas, a baptism or an ordinary Sunday all ask for the same thing, which is something modest you can feed in quietly without drawing attention. These styles use hidden zippers rather than lift-up panels, so there is no untucking and no second layer riding up while you are sitting in a pew. Several come in cotton, which is the one to reach for when you will be holding a warm baby for a few hours.
Nursing and Pumping Clothes for Work
Pumping at work means doing the same thing two or three times a day, on a schedule, usually with a meeting waiting on the other side. The blouses and dresses here open from the front and close back up cleanly, so you are not rebuilding an outfit in front of a lactation room mirror. Most are machine washable and hold their shape through a commute.
Common questions
You can, but it usually means finding a private room and taking the dress most of the way off, which is difficult to do discreetly at a reception. A nursing dress opens at the bust through a hidden zipper or a wrap panel, so you can feed or pump close to where you are sitting and be back at the table in a few minutes.
Most of ours use a hidden zipper sewn into a seam at the bust. You unzip one side, nurse or attach a pump, then zip it back. From the outside the zipper reads as part of the design, and because the opening is built into the dress itself there is no second layer to lift or untuck.
Look for something that opens from the front and closes again quickly, since you will be doing it on a schedule between other things. Hidden-zipper blouses and dresses work well because the whole outfit stays on. Darker colours and fabrics that resist creasing are worth choosing too, for the obvious reasons.
That mostly depends on how often you will be out of the house. If most of your feeding happens at home, a few pieces for work and events is usually enough. Many of these styles also fit during pregnancy and afterwards, so they tend to stay in rotation well past the point you stop nursing.