For many of us, the first hint of pregnancy is that achy boob feeling, when you presume it may be the usual monthly period breast tenderness and it will be gone in a few days, but as the days become a week (or weeks) and you find yourself with a near-constant heaviness in your breasts, it slowly starts to dawn on you that you might actually be pregnant?!
I remember those days only too well, the dull heavy achy boob feeling, (which on my first pregnancy I mistook for premenstrual symptoms), tugging at my ill-fitting bra, the feeling of the underwire digging into me, becoming more uncomfortable as the day wore on, feeling tighter than usual.
Fast forward to a positive pregnancy test 😊 and a new relationship with my boobs which I never knew existed.
Back then, (we’re talking early 2000s), I continued to wear my usual underwired bras that were struggling to contend with my ever-growing boobs, and there wasn’t a day that went by without me moaning and grumbling about stupid ill-fitting underwear. That classic rip-your-bra-off-the-minute-you-get-home feeling was very big in my life at that time. I was clueless about maternity wear, and ridiculously, never considered that a maternity bra could and should have been worn during pregnancy.
When I think back now, I see how silly and uninformed I was. Your body, growing another tiny body, is put under a lot of pressure during pregnancy, and your breasts in-particular need to be looked after, because after baby is born, whether you decide to breastfeed or not, your boobs will need comfort and support.
By wearing supportive underwear throughout pregnancy and after, you are giving your body the best chance to repair and heal itself after a heady 9 months of pregnancy.
What I would have given for a wireless bamboo bra back then!
And don’t get me started on my pregnancy knicks, knickers from hell that would slide under my ever-growing bump were beyond irritating, so in addition to fiddling with my bra all day, I’d be driven demented by my underwear not fitting the bill either.
Three babies later and I nearly feel cheated that I didn’t know about the healing and cooling properties of bamboo underwear. Bit of a dramatic statement I know, but I was the pregnant momma-to-be with ‘her lists’. I had everything covered for every eventuality in the lead-up to my children’s births, I nearly had lists for my lists… but the one thing I didn’t have in hand throughout my whole pregnancy was my underwear.
If I were to do it all over again, I would hook myself up with the Bamboo Maternity collection. A comfortable soft bra (and yes I have put that in bold font for a reason, because back then comfort and bra never went hand-in-hand for me) and cooling support shorts that grew with my ever expanding body would be the first thing I would buy. Marry this with the fact that I now know that this range of underwear fits so many bills for so many stages of a woman’s life, I can’t recommend them enough.
The Fleur is ideal for pregnancy and nursing. The Fleur can be worn during pregnancy and if you decide to breastfeed, it's the perfect bra for you with easy, detachable front-fastening straps. These bras are also lovely for skin-on-skin time with baby, without the usual upper body acrobatics you need to remove ‘normal’ bras, and a little insider tip, because bamboo has natural cooling and antibacterial properties, the underwear will actually soothe sore nipples and engorged breasts and eliminate that icky sweaty boob feeling. And that rip-your-bra-off-the-minute-you-get-home feeling I mentioned earlier, doesn’t factor with these bras at all. In fact, they are so soft and comfortable that you can sleep in them without a care in the world.
Bamboo Rose Shorts are another must-have! They grow with your bump and are perfect postpartum support briefs. If you have had a vaginal delivery or C-section, the Rose Shorts provide you with comfort and support, whilst also being naturally thermal regulating to provide your delicate areas with cooling, healing properties.
Bamboo is literally magic spun into fabric! And every one of these products for women is literally genius!
If you know of someone who is pregnant and you’re searching for the perfect gift for them, search no more! Bamboo underwear is the ultimate self-care range and you will be giving the gift of comfort and support when it’s needed the most. You might even indulge in a little self-care for yourself and treat yourself to the most comfortable range of underwear there is! Go on, you know you deserve it.
Emma Corcoran, Mammy of 3 not so little babies.
June 24,2021
