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May 18, 2023

Bodily The Do Anything Bra Review: The Best Nursing Bra in 2023

Bodily’s The Do Anything Bra was the best nursing bra overall in my larger

Bodily's The Do Anything Bra was the best nursing bra overall in my larger tested review of the best nursing bras. Ahead, learn more about what makes this bra the best and most comfortable for both the nursing and pumping parents on a panel of breastfeeding moms, including a lactation expert.

When you’re nursing or pumping six to eight times a day (like I did), you need a bra that treats you gently. After testing 20-plus nursing bras over a year of breastfeeding and pumping, I found Bodily's The Do Anything Bra to be more comfortable and multifunctional than any competitor at any price. It's also much nicer looking. Read on to learn more about why I think it's the only nursing and pumping bra you need to buy.

Testers picked The Do Anything Bra from Bodily as the best nursing bra overall, because of its ... [+] silky, non-irritating fabric and versatile design.

It's the best nursing bra, because it feels silky-soft and even luxurious, plus it has features that help you get the job done: pretty grosgrain ribbon-like straps that stay exactly as tight or loose as you want them, elevated nursing clips that come undone with one hand and camouflaged openings that make hands-free pumping as convenient as possible. It feels feminine and sexy, yet totally functional. Aside from the clips, you’d never know it's a nursing bra, and the openings for pumping are so subtle you really have to know where to look to find them. It's such a unique and appealing design that one of our testers declared it "definitely the prettiest pumping bra."

Bodily

Style: Clip-down nursing; covered opening in cup for pumping | Size range: Small (32A) to 3X (46DDD/F) | Material: 76% polyamide (a.k.a. nylon), 24% elastane | Wireless: Yes | Padded: No | Care: Machine-wash cold/delicate, line dry

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All of the top nursing bra contenders I tested were made of a nylon and elastane or spandex blend, but none felt like the Bodily bra. One tester referred to it as feeling "like butter." Another described it as "very silky and soft" and her "favorite material of all of them." "Sexy and sleek" is how another put it. These aren't words you hear associated with most nursing bras, which often wear and look more like a shapeless sports bra at best. The Bodily bra is a departure. To me, its Oeko-Tex certified material feels like a satiny robe, albeit with stretch that doesn't sag. The inner sling that supports your breast is made of the same silky material as the cup.

Your breast pump's flanges easily slip into this nursing bra for pumping, or you can unhook the ... [+] front clips for breastfeeding your baby.

This Bodily bra is designed for a flexible, adjustable fit. The soft elastic band has a padded five-row hook-and-eye closure, so you have plenty of room to take it in or let it out. The straps are made of a thick ribbed material, almost like grosgrain ribbon, that holds the slider adjuster (which is helpfully located on the front) exactly where you put it. The sling is large and connects to the side seam of the bra, so that it fully cups and supports your breast. Finally, all of the testers agreed that the clips are easy to undo with one hand.

This bra is unique in that it's equally well suited to nursing and pumping. Because it's a single layer, you just unclip the one layer to nurse. To pump, you simply slide the pump flange through a covered opening that's hidden by the pleats in the center core of the bra. It doesn't feel heavy or thick, the way some other pumping bras can.

All of the testers loved that you can throw this bra straight into the washer. It does need to line dry, but the nylon-elastane blend dries quickly. I have been wearing mine for more than 8 months and it still looks brand-new. You may notice, as one of the testers and I did, that milk spills leave a mark on lighter-color versions of this bra. I can confirm that this comes out in the wash, but if you don't want to see it, choose the black bra.

At $58, Bodily's The Do Anything Bra isn't the most expensive of the nine nursing bra finalists a panel of moms and I ultimately tested (on average, they cost closer to $50 each) more closely, but it was on the upper end. The most expensive bra I considered is $85, and the least expensive one, the best value Auden Women's Nursing Seamless Bra, is $17. However, I think the fabric and design of the Bodily bra are worth the upgrade if you nurse and pump, as so many moms do. No other bra gives you this much functionality in as lightweight and comfortable a package.

"Supportive, stays in place, luxurious," said one tester. "It's not an obvious nursing bra."

A panel of nursing and pumping parents helped me test the finalists and select the winning bras.

I personally wore and laundered this Bodily nursing bra for nearly a full year. I also selected and managed a panel of moms to test it by wearing it (and other finalist bras) and assigning each a score from 1 (poor) to 5 (amazing) for each of the following criteria. Some of the moms were nursing exclusively, some pumping exclusively and others doing a combination. Some were on their first child, like me, while others had two kids or several. Our babies were ages 6 weeks to 9 months old. We wore a variety of bra sizes, too, from XS to XXL.

Finally, we each washed and dried the bra according to its instructions.

I’ve been a health and wellness writer and editor for over a decade, guiding coverage of women's issues for O, The Oprah Magazine and Martha Stewart Living. I’ve also written for many more national publications, including Elle, Allure, The Strategist and more. Perhaps even more importantly, I’m also a new mom to a baby girl. Nursing wasn't easy for us; exclusive pumping, which came later, wasn't either. This story combines everything I learned from my personal journey with the research and interviews I did with lactation consultants, doulas and bra experts and countless fittings and thousands of hours of wearing many, many nursing bras.