An Iowa State University professor’s bra design for breastfeeding mothers is now the first patent from ISU’s fashion school.
The bra is made out of breathable, bamboo fabric and has extra soft velcro, plus, it’s also adjustable so mothers can keep wearing it as their bodies change.
Professor Ling Zhang says she got the idea when she was nursing her second child. She realized the stiff structure of her nursing bra was not only uncomfortable, it was also causing her health problems, like clogged milk ducts.
“During that time, I thought maybe I should do something to help those mothers who have the same issue as me,” Zhang says, “but actually, lots of mothers, they don’t know the bra can cause health issues.”
Zhang said she surveyed more than one-thousand mothers across the country and tested the prototypes with seven breastfeeding mothers. She says a lot of the mothers she surveyed kept wearing normal underwire bras during breastfeeding, but she says this can lead to health problems since they aren’t flexible.
“During breastfeeding, our breasts, the size and the weight always change,” she says, “so if you have those non-stretch materials around your breast, that gives lots of pressure and compression to the breast. That’s not healthy.”
The patent is held by the university, but Zhang sells the designs through her company MUQIN.
(By Isabella Luu, Iowa Public Radio)