When you’re shopping for maternity clothes, it’s always worth considering including a few pieces which are suitable for both pregnancy and breastfeeding. It doubles the life of your clothes, and ensures you’ll have something comfortable (and practical) to wear just after giving birth. Establishing breastfeeding is one of the many challenges you’ll face as a new mum, and it’s just that little bit easier if you have the right clothes to enable you to meet baby’s needs without showing any more skin than you want to.

Versatility is what Queen Bee does best - keep in mind that many of our pieces are made from fabrics with some stretch, and are specially styled to take you right through from pregnancy to post-partum breastfeeding.

If you plan on breastfeeding your baby, you’re in very good company. We all probably remember how the late Princess Diana insisted on breastfeeding her baby sons, and plenty of big name celebrities have done the same. Famous Aussie actress mums like Cate Blanchett and Naomi Watts have talked openly about breastfeeding, and actress Isla Fisher made sure all her outfits for Confessions of a Shopaholic were breastfeeding friendly. She said "They were all breastfeeding proof – they could be whipped off in a minute and then put back on."

Last year you may have seen the beautiful, naturally lit photos of Angelina Jolie breastfeeding one of her twins, taken by Brad Pitt, which not surprisingly made it onto a magazine cover, and a couple of years earlier, a photo of her and Brad with baby Shiloh clearly showed her nursing bra straps. If it’s good enough for Brangelina…

We’ve all probably heard plenty about how important breastfeeding is. The World Health Organisation tells us that “Breast milk is the ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants” and that “Infants should be exclusively breastfed – i.e. receive only breast milk – for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health.” But it’s also widely acknowledged (or should be) that like any new skill, it can take time and effort to establish breastfeeding successfully, and the more help you have, the better.

Remember, help is out there! Even after you leave hospital, organizations like the ABA in Australia, or La Leche League International in many other parts of the world, are available to provide help and ongoing advice on any area of breastfeeding you may be having trouble with. In many cases these organizations are staffed by volunteers who have breastfed themselves and have experience with the very issues you may be facing.

While much is made of how difficult it can be to establish breastfeeding, that’s certainly not the case for everyone, and once you and baby have things worked out, it’s very easy to continue with – especially with the right clothes! Gossip Girl actress Kelly Rutherford plans to try feeding her two year old son until he weans naturally after seeing how well it worked for her doula. Certainly, the closeness and emotional bonding breastfeeding facilitates can take many new mothers by surprise. Alias actress Jennifer Garner has talked of how emotional she has found the breastfeeding relationship to be, with daughter Violet.

So with the right advice, you may end up breastfeeding for longer than you expect. That means investing in some specialised breastfeeding clothes makes sense. Tops designed for breastfeeding often utilise an upper layer which can be lifted away to reveal openings for feeding, like this one by Milky Way, or a layer which can be pulled aside in a cross-over top, like this beautiful Cross-over hoodie. In some cases, breastfeeding tops may have their own built in bra, like this Henley by 1 in the Oven. Remember you also have the option of layering; with a breastfeeding cami or singlet as your base layer, you can wear another shirt over the top and simply lift it up to feed, while keeping your tummy safely covered.

Queen Bee’s floral nursing cami is a great wardrobe basic, (in fact, why not get two?). Our popular Peekaboo range also offers lots of inspiration, with your choice of ¾ length sleeves, tank, short sleeved top and short sleeved tunic in a variety of colours. Each top in this range has their cute signature duck printed on the inside of the fold up layer, to give the baby something to look at while feeding.

Browse our breastfeeding range to see all the other great tops on offer, and remember, we have a wonderful range of breastfeeding dresses too, not to mention nursing bras…

Happy shopping!

Hannah
xx