A message from my inbox in June: “We have a holiday booked. How do I feed a baby at a pool in a swimsuit without basically taking it off?” I had the same question with my second, in a one-piece with a racer back, which was the worst possible choice and taught me what the right ones were. A swimsuit is the one garment where the two-shirt method does not apply, so the suit itself has to open.
Four shapes do: the front zip, the wrap, the drop cup and the tankini. This is what each one is, what to check before you buy it, the cover-up that is secretly the best nursing cover you will own, and the honest answers about pads, leaks and a middle that is not what it was. The beach is allowed to be yours this year.
1. The front-zip one-piece
A one-piece with a zip from the neckline down the front, which opens as far as you need and closes again wet. The surf-style suits are built this way and most are in thick, quick-drying fabric that holds a pad in place. Check: the zip runs low enough to clear the chest, and the fabric is thick enough not to show a pad. Front-zip nursing swimsuits exist, and so do the surf suits that never say nursing.
2. The wrap one-piece
A one-piece with a crossover front that ties at the side or the back. Untie or pull one side across, feed, tie back. The wrap also skims a postpartum middle better than any other suit shape. Check: a real wrap that opens, not a crossover sewn shut, and enough overlap not to gape when you sit.
3. The drop-cup bikini top with high-waisted bottoms
A bikini top with the clips of a nursing bra, which drop one cup. Paired with high-waisted bottoms that sit above a scar and hold a soft middle. The fastest feed of the four and the one for the hot day. Check: the clips work with wet hands, and the cups are lined enough to hold a pad. Drop-cup nursing swim tops.
From the capsules
The Travel Capsule
Twenty pieces, twenty-five outfits that fit one carry-on, with the Packing List and the On-the-Go Toolkit. $19.99 once, yours to keep.
4. The tankini with a lift-up top
A loose tankini top over bikini bottoms. The top lifts from the hem like a tee, and the loose cut hides the middle. Check: the top is long and loose enough to lift without a fight and does not cling when wet. The most modest of the four and the one most mamas already own in some form.
Free · paste a screenshot
Can you feed in it? Ask before you buy.
Paste a screenshot of any top, dress or jumpsuit from any shop and Will it feed? tells you if you can nurse or pump in it, how, and what to wear instead if not. One free look a day, three more with your email.
Honest and kind. It has looked at thousands of garments.
The cover-up that is a nursing cover
A long, light, open kaftan or shirt dress worn over the suit is the walk to the pool, the shade on the lounger, and the cover for the feed: drape one side over the baby. A sarong does the same tied at the hip and lifted. The cover-up is the piece that makes a pool feed feel like nothing. Styling scarves and wraps as discretion shields has the moves, and they work with a sarong.
Pads, leaks and water
A pad in a wet swimsuit does nothing, and a let-down in the pool is a thing that happens and that nobody notices. Feed before you swim, so there is less to leak. Put a dry pad in the dry suit afterwards. A dark suit hides a mark; a thick fabric hides a pad. Silicone pads that press rather than absorb are the ones that work under a wet suit if you want them.
Free · eight questions
What to buy first, in the order to buy it.
The Order asks about your feeding, your season and your days, then gives you twelve pieces in the order they earn their place, with a picture and a shop link for each. Nothing you do not need.
Free. The list can be emailed to you so it is there in the shop.
The middle, plainly
High-waisted bottoms, a wrap front, ruching at the side, a dark colour or a small print. A suit that skims rather than holds is kinder on a scar and in a photograph. And the thing I wish someone had said to me on that first holiday: nobody at the pool is looking at your middle, and the baby certainly is not.
The Nursing Mama Fashion Commandments
Twelve rules I wish someone had told me postpartum. Print them. Screenshot them. Live by them.
- Nursing bra always. Regular bras become instruments of pain the day letdown surprises you.
- Nursing pads on your body + a spare pair in your bag. Every single time you leave the house. No exceptions.
- Extra top in your bag — for YOU, not the baby. Because leaks, spit-up, and coffee-spills don’t care about your outfit plan.
- If it takes more than 5 minutes to figure out how to nurse or pump in it, it’s not the right outfit today. Feeding access is comfort. Comfort is not optional.
- Belt under the bust (empire) or below the belly with drape — never at the belly button. Your postpartum body deserves flattery, not compression.
- Comfortable waistband is non-negotiable. Elastic, wrap, or pull-on. Zippers are a Sunday-only luxury for now.
- Dark tones, prints, or textures — not thin light solids. Because letdown marks are real and you deserve clothes that don’t advertise them.
- Machine-washable everything. Dry-clean is not real-mama fashion. If it can’t survive a spit-up rinse, it’s not in rotation.
- Cross-body bag only. Hands stay free for the carrier, the toddler, the coffee, the door, the meltdown.
- Comfortable shoes always. You’re carrying a car seat and a diaper bag. This is not the season for a heel you can’t run in.
- Get dressed BEFORE the kids see you if you can. It changes the whole day — for them and for you.
- One accessory — earrings, a lip color, a scarf — counts as “put together.” That’s the whole game. You get to feel like yourself again.
The pool bag
A dry tank and a dry pad for after. Two muslins. The kaftan. A hat for both of you. Water for you, because feeding in heat is thirsty. And the baby’s swim nappy, which is the one thing that cannot be improvised.
The racer-back one-piece came off in a changing room three times a day for a week before I bought a wrap suit on the second day of the holiday, and the rest of the week I fed on the lounger under a kaftan like it was the easiest thing in the world. It was, once the suit opened. The beach does not need to wait a year.
The Travel Capsule is twenty pieces and twenty-five outfits that fit one carry-on, with the Packing List and the On-the-Go Toolkit, laid out and then worn, with three pictures of you in them on the house; the kaftan and the wrap suit are in it. The travel capsule wardrobe while breastfeeding is the free guide. And First Look will tell you, free, which dark shade to buy the suit in.
A suit that opens, a kaftan that covers, a feed before you swim. The focus is on you, mama.
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