Having Just Done a Maternity Bra Fitting, Here's What Lingerie Retailers Should Know About Pregnant Shoppers

Currently in my second trimester, I could visibly and physically feel that my usual bras were becoming too tight in the band, with the cups spilling over. And wow - being in my first pregnancy, I did not know the change was going to be this drastic. Nobody tells you how fast and how dramatically your body moves through these changes. Almost every day I wake up to a new breast size and do not know what to expect the next day. Much like the baby growing inside me, my breasts have their own lives now.

Working in the lingerie industry has definitely helped me navigate this stage. Last Christmas, our founder Bella gave each of the female staff a £100 voucher and encouraged us to get properly fitted at one of her favourite boutique stores - and being in my second trimester, this felt like exactly the right moment to finally get a proper maternity fitting. Coming out of that appointment, here is what my experience was like, and what every lingerie retailer should understand about pregnant customers and the similar underserved markets you could be reaching.

What pregnant customers need from a bra fitting

I came out with a 36F - which is not actually my current size. The fitters were already thinking ahead: a wider back in the third trimester, fuller cups once nursing begins. Because I mentioned I was looking for nursing bras, they fitted me for a body that has not fully arrived yet. I had not considered that a fitting could work that way.

But the fitting was most definitely not just about size.

We started with managing expectations - what to expect at each stage of pregnancy, and how much can realistically be planned for right now. Borrowing the fitter's own words: "nobody can tell you exactly how much your size will change once breastfeeding begins." Having that framework made the whole thing feel less overwhelming than waking up to a new size every morning.

We tried wired, wire-free, nursing and regular styles and talked through the pros and cons of each. We tried different sizes of the same bra to find the most comfortable fit. She also showed me how to use the hooks and strap adjustments to extend the life of a single bra as my size continues to shift, which is practical advice that comes in very handy when your body is changing daily.

Then came style recommendations, where we looked at which was most seamless under a t-shirt, which neckline suited me, which had nursing clips that were most intuitive. Two or three styles did not work for my shape at all, and knowing that now means I will not waste time or money on them in the future.

The moment that stayed with me most was watching the fitter assess my cup almost entirely by eye. She had measured my back, but the cup recommendation came from observation and experience rather than a tape measure. Knowing that fitting by eye is the method we champion at Brarista, it was something else to see it in person, also knowing it is a skill that takes time to build.

What I would tell every pregnant person shopping for bras online

Do not buy all your nursing bras while you are still pregnant. Your size after birth, especially once milk comes in, can shift in ways that are hard to predict. Buy one or two to have ready, and hold off on the rest.

Beyond that, go for soft, breathable and smooth fabrics. I cannot stress how much fabric matters after trying on as many styles as I did. Some non-wired bras will surprise you with the support they offer, and you would never know from looking at them on a hanger or a product page.

And read reviews from other pregnant and nursing people specifically. They will tell you how a bra holds up as your size fluctuates week to week, which the product descriptions will never specify.

Most importantly, if you can get to an in-person fitting, go!

What this means for lingerie retailers

Sitting in that fitting room, I kept thinking about the gap between what I was learning in-person and what I would have found online.

I believe the pregnant customer is one of the most underserved segments in online lingerie. Not because the products are not there - there is actually a growing range of maternity and nursing bras available, including from our own clients Latched and Marbra. The gap is in the information available around those products. After going through the process myself, I realise that the questions a pregnant shopper arrives with are far more layered than a standard product description can answer. Especially if it is your first pregnancy and you do not know what to expect from one week to the next.

A fitter in person is still my first recommendation. But I also understand, much more clearly now that I am living it, that getting out of the house for a two-hour round trip is not always realistic. That is part of why Brarista exists - to carry that fitting knowledge into the online journey, through our conversational AI tool and our Best For feature, where we work with bra fitters and brands to surface things like: suitable for the second trimester, works well for nursing, gentle on sensitive skin. The kind of detail that never makes it into SEO-optimised copy but makes all the difference to someone who is trying to figure this out from their sofa.

The maternity shopper is also one of the clearest examples of a hidden customer segment - someone whose specific needs rarely show up in how product catalogues are structured or described. If your maternity range is well-stocked but your conversion rate in that category does not reflect it, the gap is probably not the product. It is the information around it.

If you are pregnant and reading this: you do not have to figure it out alone. Find a fitter if you can. And if you cannot, look for retailers who have thought carefully about what you actually need to know.

And if you are a retailer reading this: your maternity customer is already on your site. They just cannot find the answers they are looking for!

About Brarista

Brarista is the world's first AI-powered bra fitting chatbot platform designed specifically for lingerie retail. By merging advanced AI technology with professional bra fitting expertise, Brarista revolutionises the online shopping experience and tackles the long-standing challenge of incorrect bra sizing, which affects 90% of consumers and drives dissatisfaction and sales drop-off.

Unlike generic chatbots or simple measuring tools, Brarista offers deep lingerie specialisation — combining professionally graded fitting quizzes, deep learning algorithms, and large language models to democratise expert fitting services at scale. It delivers round-the-clock, personalised, brand-agnostic sizing recommendations through B2B2C white-label software embedded directly within retailers' websites, free to end-users.

Book a demo to discover how Brarista's AI bra fitting chatbot can help you turn sizing uncertainty into sales.