Bra fitters are crucial to women’s health

I’ve just returned from training 7 bra fitters in the wider issues of bra fitting for maternity and nursing bras, using the RCM accredited Bra Fitting Awareness Course. During my long drive home it’s really struck me that, even though all these women have been bra fitters in the shops they work in, they still had very little understanding of how important bra fitting is to women’s health and well being, especially during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The exact point made by last week’s Which report I talked about previously.

I’m not saying that I have all the answers. However, during one of the sessions one of the ladies requested that I measure her to confirm her own bra size. She was surprised with my answer. She was even more surprised when I adjusted the bra she was wearing and she found that she could breathe and her bra didn’t hurt! Yes, it was simple enough for me to do as I know what I’m looking for. But I would have expected that someone who has been carrying out bra fittings on other ladies would have known that if her own bra was not comfortable, (and she shared with us that she’s been to the doctor as she’s had pains in her breasts), would have been able to do these simple adjustments herself.

Out of the 7 women who attended today’s course, only 1 of them said that they’d had a good bra fitting themselves. The others had all had awful experiences, and now tended not to have bra fittings as they didn’t trust the bra fitters, or felt that they had more idea than those that were serving them.

So how can we improve this situation? Obviously more training is needed of sales assistants in all stores selling bras, even if they’re not offering a fitting service, they need to be able to give advice. We need our health professionals to have more understanding of bra fitting so that they can help us to get it right and not damage our breast tissue. And wouldn’t it be good if we taught our young women how to fit and wear bras in school? And we, ladies, need to demand better service and tell the shops we go to that we’re not happy with what they’re telling us if they are recommending bras that feel uncomfortable. They will never learn otherwise.

I guess my training services are even more vital in training others, but, I know there are other good bra fitters out there. We need to shout out about what we do and the importance of good fitting bras to women’s health, well being, self esteem and confidence.

Please ladies, don’t put up with uncomfortable bras. Try different styles, sizes and make a visit to an expert, specialist bra fitter, or ask advice from an online bra fitting service like bras4mums and bras4all. The business started when I got bad advice, and I don’t want it perpetuating! Tell me what I can do to make it better, and I’ll do my best, with your support.

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