Auden Women’s Nursing Seamless Bra Review 2023

The Auden Women's Nursing Seamless Bra was the best value nursing bra in my larger tested review of the best nursing bras. Ahead, learn more about the best nursing bra you can buy for less than $20 and why a panel of breastfeeding moms loved it so much.

The best nursing bra provides the comfort, support and flexibility that you need to get through the day (and night) as a new parent, especially one struggling to get into a rhythm with breastfeeding and a new baby's schedule. It should be soft and breathable, with a band and straps that give you a gentle lift and that are easy to adjust. The clips should make it simple to feed your child with little fuss. The Auden Women's Nursing Seamless Bra at Target achieves this better than many competitors that cost twice as much—all for just $17.

The Auden Women's Nursing Seamless Bra is an affordable workhorse that our testers loved.

After testing 20-plus nursing bras over my year of breastfeeding, and then putting my favorites to the test with a panel of five other nursing moms, this inexpensive Auden bra impressed us all. The design of its band, straps and cups give you support and flexibility, and it feels made to last. At this price point, you might even be tempted to buy one for every day of the week, to lighten your laundry load. Read on for the full review of this versatile nursing bra and to learn more about why it's my best value nursing bra pick.

Target

Style: Clip-down nursing bra | Size range: XS (32B/34A) to XL (38DD/40D) | Material: Shell: 92% nylon, 8% spandex; body lining: 93% nylon, 7% spandex; cup side lining: 92% nylon, 8% spandex; cup lining: 100% polyester | Wireless: Yes | Padded: Yes (fixed) | Care: Hand-wash cold, line dry

Best for:

Skip if:

Early on, you may be wondering, "Do I really need a nursing bra?" The truth is, you might not. You might find it's better to go braless while breastfeeding or to wear a gentle camisole with or without nursing clips and a shelf bra, says Maya Bolman, a postpartum nurse and international board certified lactation consultant (IBCLC) who worked in the postpartum and lactation departments at Cleveland Clinic's Hillcrest Hospital for 26 years and is now at Breastfeeding Medicine of Northeast Ohio. If you find that you do want extra support, the right material is key. The soft nylon and spandex blend makes this Target nursing bra stretchy and all-around comfortable. One tester described it as "smooth and breathable." Another praised the padding, which is sewn in as opposed to fitting into a sleeve or pocket in the cup and being removable, the way it is on other nursing bras. "That's incredible," she said. "It doesn't move around after a feeding or in the wash."

It also manages to be elastic without stretching out and sagging, the way other bras can. "It's just as snug after each feeding and when I take it off at the end of the night as it was when I first put it on in the morning," wrote one tester.

The Auden Women's Nursing Seamless Bra offers a wide, stretchy band, smooth fixed padded cups and a ... [+] comfortable fit for a range of wearers.

The Auden Women's Nursing Seamless Bra checks all the critical boxes in the design category. It has a soft, stretchy and wide band with an extended hook-and-eye closure to give you lots of room to adjust the fit—six rows of hooks, where the other contenders had five or sometimes only three. The straps are nice and thick, with an adjuster slider on the front, where it's easy to access while you’ve got the bra on, instead of on the back like a regular bra. The clips are easy to undo single-handedly. And the sling inside the cup is nice and wide to support and direct your breast.

Though this bra is flexible and adjustable, you may still find that you need a few different sizes as your body changes. According to Jada Shapiro, founder of Boober, an online platform where parents can find lactation consultants and doulas, it's common for your breast size to increase by one or two cup sizes from your eighth month of pregnancy through your first weeks or months postpartum. That's on top of the one or two cup sizes they may grow during pregnancy. After the so-called fourth trimester, they may decrease again. I personally went from a 30/32B before I was pregnant to a 30/32DD/E while pumping. At the price of this Target nursing bra, you might be able to invest in a few different sizes.

This bra may be hand-wash only, but trust me, it just takes a minute. None of the testers complained that it was inconvenient. A quick suds and rinse in the sink is all this material needs. It dries quickly, too. Hand-washing keeps the bra looking brand-new. I did notice that there is some conflicting care instructions for this nursing bra. The label on the bra advises cold hand-washing and line drying while online directions say that machine washing is OK.

The winning nursing bras were all soft and flexible—some worked better for certain bodies or ... [+] situations.

Compared with our best overall nursing bra, Bodily's The Do Anything Bra, the Auden bra is simply not as exciting. Its material doesn't feel as luxuriously soft and silky. It is not Oeko-Tex certified. In general, the Auden nursing bra looks more matronly. There are no built-in openings for pumping, although you can get creative and use the straps to help hold a pump flange in place. The Bodily nursing bra offers slits on the front of each cup, allowing you to discreetly add in breast pump flanges without having to unhook the whole thing. The Auden costs much less, and it may be more comfortable for very new parents since the Bodily bra is designed to be used once your milk supply has regulated, so those a little further on with breastfeeding.

"I love this bra and can't believe it's from Target (and I love Target)," raved one of the testers, an exclusively nursing mom to a 4-month-old. "One of the best nursing bras out there, and far more accessible than most."

I tested more than 20 nursing bras in the year I became a mom, wearing them for countless hours and tossing them into countless loads of laundry. To narrow the field for this story, I researched additional bras and spoke with additional experts (lactation consultants, bra fitters) and parents to come up with nine top contenders for testing. I eliminated any from the running that I already knew were uncomfortable, those that had a demi- or triangle-style cup I thought would work only for small busts, that were too fussy or that just didn't wow me or make me feel excited to put them on. (It's the little things, right?)

My panel of five additional moms then tested the Auden nursing bra along with the other finalists by wearing it during the course of a full day while we nursed and/or pumped and assigning it a score from 1 (poor) to 5 (amazing) for each of the following criteria. Some of the panelists were exclusively breastfeeding, some pumping exclusively and others a combination. Some moms were on their first child, while others had older children, too. Our babies ranged from ages 6 weeks to 9 months old. We wore a variety of bra sizes, from XS to XXL.

Finally, we washed and dried each according to the instructions to make sure it wasn't too time-consuming and to see how the bra looked afterward.

I’m a veteran health and wellness writer and editor (Elle; O, The Oprah Magazine; Martha Stewart Living; Allure and more) and a new mom to a baby girl. We had difficulty nursing, and I eventually settled into a routine of exclusively pumping that I continued for a year. I spent hundreds of hours researching and trying on nursing bras and talking with lactation consultants and doulas to try to make the process more comfortable and convenient, both as part of our personal journey and for this story. I’ve also written, tested and reviewed a number of baby and kids gear items over the last year for Forbes Vetted and other outlets, including the best baby sunscreens.