Free Shipping on US orders over $150
-
Collections
-
Bikini
- One Pieces
- Cover-Ups
- Men's
- Sale
- MODA GLAM x L'ANIMAL
- Nice Breed
-
The best starting point for most postpartum bodies is a supportive one-piece or a high-waisted bottom with ruching and adjustable straps. Both accommodate a softer belly, protect a C-section incision from waistline pressure, and adjust as your body keeps changing. L’ANIMAL builds several pieces around exactly this brief, focusing first on support, then nursing access, and style third.
TL;DR:
- High-waisted, adjustable swimsuits with supportive features help accommodate rapid body changes and protect healing scars during postpartum recovery.
- Ruching, strategic prints, and seam placement create flattering shapes while minimizing attention to soft bellies and scars.
- Supportive one-pieces with structured support and forgiving styles outperform bikinis, which may lack necessary coverage and support during healing.
- Proper fit requires measuring bust, underbust, waist, and hips carefully, ordering up if between sizes, and testing sitting and movement comfort before buying.
- Fabric choices with high elastane content, soft linings, flat seams, and UPF protection are essential for comfort, longevity, and sun safety in postpartum swimsuits.
Fit changes fast in the months after birth, so the features matter more than the size on the tag. Start with the checklist below and let it guide every suit you try on.
An OB-GYN quoted by Glamour specifically recommends higher-waisted bottoms after a C-section, since they avoid the direct pressure a low-rise bikini puts right on the incision. That single detail changes how you should shop: rise height isn’t a style preference postpartum, it’s a comfort requirement.
Pro Tip: Try the suit sitting down before you buy it. A waistband that feels fine standing up can dig in the moment you sit, and sitting is most of what you’ll do at the pool with a newborn.
There’s no universal “best” swimsuit for every postpartum body. Shopping editors at Forbes Vetted point out that adjustability and inclusive sizing matter more than any single silhouette, because recovery timelines and body changes vary too much for one design to fit everyone.
One-pieces tend to win the support contest, and it’s not close. A well-cut statement one-piece with a V-neck, wrap front, or blouson top gives you shaping through the midsection while still looking deliberate rather than “covered up.” Blouson styles, which blouse loosely at the waist before cinching, are especially forgiving for a soft belly because the fabric drapes instead of clinging.
High-waisted bottoms are the second pillar. The rise should land above or clearly below your scar line, never across it, and a wide waistband with interior elastic holds its shape through a long pool day better than a thin drawstring. High-waisted bikini bottoms also give you the coverage to skip shapewear underneath, which most new moms don’t want to deal with at the beach.
A few style details do real optical work:
Two-piece suits aren’t off the table. A longline top paired with a high-rise bottom gives nursing access and coverage at the same time, and mixing a supportive top with a separate bottom often fits better than a matched set, since your top and bottom size may no longer match the way they did before pregnancy. Mom-tested reviews collected by The Every Mom consistently rank ruching, prints, and smart seam placement as the details that made testers feel confident again, not the overall silhouette alone.
Nursing-friendly suits generally use one of three access points: side openings with a privacy panel, clip-down straps, or a full front zip. Each trades off differently. Clip straps are fast but can loosen throughout the day; side-panel access, like the design used in Latched Mama’s nursing one-piece, keeps more structure in place while still allowing quick access.
If you’re active in the water, structured support beats convenience. A sewn-in shelf bra with adjustable straps holds up better than a delicate clip panel once your chest size starts shifting week to week, which it will during nursing.
For C-section recovery, treat the waistline as the main variable. Choose a rise that sits well clear of the incision, and prioritize soft, tagless interior linings over anything with a hard seam or exposed elastic edge.
Pro Tip: Pack the suit in your hospital bag test run, not just your first beach day. If you can nurse comfortably on the couch in it, you can nurse in it at the pool.
Check with your provider before swimming again. Healing time varies by delivery type and complications, so get clearance before you get in the water.
Get three measurements before you shop: bust (fullest point), underbust (right below the breast tissue), and waist (at the narrowest point of your torso, which may sit higher or lower postpartum than it used to). Hip measurement matters most for bottoms, since a high-waisted style depends on hip-to-waist ratio to sit correctly.
If you have diastasis recti or a soft, rounded belly, diagonal ruching and interior mesh panels do more for you than heavy compression. Compression garments can feel supportive short term but tend to push pressure outward at the edges, which isn’t ideal on a still-healing core. If your torso runs long, look for suits with adjustable straps at both shoulder and side seam, since a fixed-length one-piece can ride up all day on a longer frame.
Pro Tip: Order from a retailer with at least a 30-day return window whenever you’re between sizes. Postpartum bodies change fast enough that “close enough” today can be wrong in three weeks.
Fabric blends with a high percentage of elastane or Lycra hold their shape through repeated stretching, which matters more postpartum than it ever did before, since your body is still settling. Interior linings made from powermesh do double duty: they add tummy control and keep the suit opaque when wet, which matters if you’re self-conscious about a lighter print.
Lital Simel-Rhedrick, the designer and stylist behind L’ANIMAL, builds every collection with the assumption that a body in flux still deserves a suit that fits well, not just one that “works.” That means designing in adjustability from the start rather than treating it as an afterthought for a niche size range.
L’ANIMAL’s postpartum-relevant pieces lean on a few repeated design choices:
A swimsuit shouldn’t ask your body to perform for it. The fit should move with whatever your body is doing that month, whether that’s three weeks postpartum or three years out.
Customers navigating a changing shape often start with a structured one-piece and add a high-rise bottom from the same collection once they know their new proportions.
Your body did something enormous, and it’s allowed to look different now. Don’t assume the first suit you try on is the verdict on your shape. Small changes, a different neckline, a bolder print, a wrap front instead of a straight one, shift how a suit reads far more than sizing up or down ever will. Check L’ANIMAL’s sizing and fit guides before you commit to a size, and give yourself permission to try a few silhouettes before deciding what feels right.
— Lital
Everything covered above, adjustable support, high-rise coverage, gentle interior shaping, is built directly into L’ANIMAL’s core pieces. The Sportif Bikini Bottom is a high-waisted, adjustable design made for exactly the fit flexibility postpartum bodies need, and it pairs easily with a structured top for the two-piece combination this guide recommends.
If you’re not sure where to start, browse the full L’ANIMAL collections and filter by one-piece or high-waisted styles first, since those are the two categories this guide points to repeatedly. Check the sizing notes on each product page before ordering, and if you land between two sizes, order the larger one. Your body is still settling into its new shape, and a suit with room to adjust will outlast one that fit perfectly for exactly one week.
