Review of the Sarah Wells Pumping Bras
Sarah Wells is a staple pumping bag brand in the breastfeeding world. These bags are known for being high quality, durable, and thoughtfully designed bags you can trust to carry you through your pumping journey. Now, in addition to the amazing line up of pump bags, they offer two different pumping bras. These are advertised as being as versatile and thoughtfully designed as their pumping bags, so let’s take a look at what these bras offer and if they might be just what you are looking for!
Currently, there are two different styles of bra offered: the Journey Bra is a bralette/light sports bra style with a more traditional shape and strap setup. The Goals Bra is a halter style with a wide set of pump hooks in the front. Both offer easy access for nursing and pumping slits that are advertised to be more in line with your actual nipple placement than the average pumping bra. Both feature generous adjustment of the straps with velcro. Both also offer pumping slits that are big enough to accommodate easy access for even larger flanges like the extremely popular Pumpables Liquid Flanges.
Problems this bra claims it can solve:
Easily adjustable fit
Improved placement of pumping slits
Better access for larger flanges
Can be worn as a normal bra under regular clothing
What I wanted to know about these bras?
Can they do what the say they can?
Can they support heavier flanges like Lacteck and Pumpables Liquid comfortably?
How do they perform with wearable pumps?
Journey Bra Thoughts:
The band on this bra is impressively strong! The velcro straps are highly adjustable, but it did take a bit to figure out exactly how to adjust them. They needed to be tighter than the average bra to allow for decent support, but they don’t dig in. The material is smooth and comfortable against the skin, but do be aware it’s going to show nipples through it unless a pad is added. The slits were reasonably well placed - I think they would be a huge improvement for those who think the average pumping bra has holes too high. They accommodated larger and heavier flanges reasonably well - the straps just needed to be snug! The key to these pumping slits holding so well was the overlapping fabric. The extra support had a huge impact.
As for wearing this bra under regular clothing, I would say it is possible depending on the clothes you wear and how the bra fits your body. There is a horizontal seam that is not flush with the band that kept grabbing at my shirt making the seam prominently visible in several of my nursing tops, but less stretchy fabric was not an issue. The straps are thick with the velcro and showed through as well just the tiniest bit. Your body will highly influence this visibility.
Using the Journey Bra with some wearables was a serious fail. The pumping slits lined up to the bottom of the Elvie and Elvie Stride allowing wiggling and slipping. The Willow 3.0 and Willow Go were really large and pulled the bra in a funny manner leaving poor support and risked stretching the fabric if you did not get the straps adjusted perfectly. I feel like to use this regularly with wearables I would want to size down a bit. It performed reasonably alright with the Imani i2 and other motor on cup style designs, but was not the ideal fit for that. Does this make it a bad bra? Nope! Just not the ideal one for wearable pumps unless the bra fits you just so.
A huge perk of this bra was just how easy it was to expose the entire breast for nursing. The velcro slipped right out as intended and there is no sling to fumble around with. In the early newborn days where any fabric can be too much to fumble with, this is a great feature!
Thoughts on the Goals Bra:
This bra is a pretty unique design in the pumping bra world - it reminds me of an updated (and much improved!) Simple Wishes bandeau style pumping bra. The halter strap has generous velcro, and the hook and eye closure in the front has several inches of customizability. This bra could be worn under regular clothing, but the pumping features would likely show through a bit depending on what you were wearing. The material is smooth and stretchy and would be very comfortable against newly postpartum engorged and swollen tissue. The horizontal seam on this bra sits a little differently than the Journey Bra does, and is less prone to showing under clothing. The hook and eye would likely show if you are not on the smallest setting.
Perks of the Goals Bra:
This is one of the most adjustable pumping bras I have ever encountered! The hook and eye in the front are easy to work with. The style lends itself to being usable in the early postpartum hospital stay given it can be put on around monitors, and the velcro is strong enough to lift even swollen engorged heavy breast tissue. Compared to the dated utilitarian look of many of the pump bras on the market, this bra looks modern and more usable. The mint color is also a gorgeous shade.
A huge bonus of this bra is that it will allow you to easily transition between pumping, nursing, and skin-to-skin in the early days. This is huge for a parent who may need to pump starting almost immediately postpartum as it is very easy to use during the period of time we are really aiming to keep you and baby skin-to-skin as much as possible. Unsnapping and resnapping is far easier than having to strip entirely multiple times a day. Save the full wardrobe changes for the inevitable diaper and spit-up incidents. To nurse, you would either unhook the center clasps or undo the halter to drop the cups - easy peasy, and again, full breast access for teaching your newborn to nurse.
The Goals bra did alright with wearables. It’s likely a sufficient fit for sitting still or casual movement. For more active activities like cleaning or chasing toddlers, this may not be sufficient - the material has a touch too much stretch when supporting a heavy wearable. The adjustable neck strap does make it easy to play with how tightly it needs to fit though. One simple tug and you can experiment a little until you find the sweet spot we will try to replicate with your normal bra. The pumping slits are also helpful during the adjustment period when you may be double pumping. The only caution I have here is the large set of snaps in the front could pose a challenge with wearables if you are needing to bring it in all the way- so again I would likely want to size down.
Overall thoughts:
I would categorize these as updated versions of traditional pumping bras that for some people could be worn under normal clothing. When you are comparing these to a Simple Wishes pump bra, these are the clear winners! These are an upgrade I think is fantastic for moms!
If you are comparing them to the more modern pumping and nursing bras like we see with The Dairy Fairy, for example, they are not quite comparable. The Sarah Wells bras are true pumping bras. They are not more regular bras that have been designed for nursing and pumping. The stretchy smooth athletic fabric and pretty colors are really nice though!
I do know that the simple Wishes bra is officially retired for me. These Sarah Wells bras mean that pink bandeau will likely never see the light of day again. And, as a mom who started pumping when that was about as good as it got…..these Sarah Wells bras are sooooo much better!
