Maternity clothes - what's necessary? Calling all pregnancy veterans

mildred1978

pinkclouds wrote: »

The only thing I'd recommend as essential is either vest tops (if you have a small bust) or maternity vest tops (if pregnancy causes them to fill out or if you have a large bust anyway). Emma Jane are a good maternity brand. However, I also recommend the M&S hidden support vest tops - perhaps one size larger than usual. You'll need them to support your bust even if you don't breastfeed and you'll definitely need them if you do because maternity/nursing bras are a total faff.

There's not a 'hidden support' vest in the land could support my boobs - before, during or after pregnancy!! I need wires, and tough ones at that!!

I bought some maternity vests, linen trousers in black and white, a smart pair of trousers in grey and black for work and a few empire line tops. I did the elastic through the button hole trick too.

kettlefish

I struggled more with the length of tops in the last few weeks, there was enough material to go "out" over the bump but not to come back "in" to meet up with my trousers IYKWIM! But I wore long-line vest tops (think Primark do them - the ones that are 50p or so more than the most basic vests) under things, which have since doubled up as useful layers for breast feeding. It was also good to have another layer under tops as on cheaper maternity tops the material can be a bit thin - which isn't a great look when the old tummy button turns inside out :eek:

A useful tip with leggings / tights is to buy one size up and wear back to front - with the bump in the bit where the bum should be as there's usually a bit more space

rachbc

with ds I bought ordinary clothes 1 or 2 sizes up - with dd I had few more mt bits mainly H&M so not too pricey

mishkanorman

Ive survived so far by getting only 3 maternity tops.

I invested in a pair of elastic top linen trousers from Yours which are a larger ladies clothing store, Im a 14-16 normally so just snuck into their sizes but because the top is elasticated Im still wearing them comfortably now at 32 weeks (and my bump is HUGE !)

George at Asda do a 2 pack of maternity vest tops which are £8 and very comfortable, I combine these with ones from Primark in 2 sizes bigger than my normal ones as they dont have maternity - they are £2 a go so i dont care if they are unusable afterwards. I just then wear a blouse or loose top over them, or the 1 maternity t shirt I bothered to buy.

My advice would be dont buy until you need them, who knows what size you will get to but there isnt much point buying until you do

scotgirl

All you need IMO is:

Decent black trousers for work - I like next maternity
Maternity jeans
Maxi dress for all nights/days out, dressed up or down with shoes and jewellery etc - I got a cheap non maternity black maxi from primark and wore it to everything!
2 or 3 black and white t shirts or vests for work and casual - I like new look

Worn with my usual cardigans and tops (with a black vest under)

Also bump bands (2 for £5 from asda) are fab cause you can wear your normal trousers open for ages and tips that are getting a bit short.

SqueekyMouse

Am I the only one who found maternity jeans ridiculously uncomfortable? Too hot, too stiff, not soft or stretchy enough, and I was forever hiking them up.

I lived in Nexts black maternity trousers and teamed them up with my pre-pregnancy floaty/empire line tops.

I also splashed out on 3 JoJo Mama Bebe's wrap tops and a couple of their camis to go underneath which looked fab with existing maxi skirts I had or with my maternity trousers.

Biggest con out there were maternity knickers as far as I was concerned - they were SO expensive - just buy primark granny pants several sizes up (I'm a size 12 and I ended up buying size 18 knickers for the last couple of months :eek:)

Dazi

Clothes nowadays are so much easier to adapt to maternity clothes. Going back a while (a good while I have to say) it was not a good idea to be pregnant after Princess Di, all maternity clothes were dresses with big lacey collars and as gathered at the back as they were at the front,(they obviously expected yer bum to become as big as the lump lol) can remember wearing a pair of maternity dungarees to an anti natal class and being stared at

We didn't have bump bands in my days but my DD swore by them.

Make-it-3

It's worth buying the key staples in "maternity" - black trousers, a dress you can adapt, jeans etc. But get them as and when, if its your first you may find you don't get big till quite late on. But you will want them, as just buying a size or two up you'll probably find the fitting all wrong and you'll feel shapeless.

Casual things like leggings, jog pants, t-shirts you can get away with.

Also if you are going to be pregnant over winter I do recommend a maternity coat - lots of people don't bother but I wasn't going to go around with a normal one freezing with the buttons undone.

Chakani

Also, ask around - lots of people have a bag of maternity stuff in the loft that they aren't using - some of mine is on its 6th baby (only two are mine, I must add!), if you aren't very big, you'll only want it for the last few months, so it doesn't really wear out.

If you do buy, assuming you are planning on breast feeding, it is worth thinking about whether you can get a boob out comfortably, as you can get away with maternity tops for quite a while without looking silly as your tummy goes back to normal, so tops with a wrapover top or buttons down the front could get a lot more mileage out of them.

dizziblonde

SqueekyMouse wrote: »

Am I the only one who found maternity jeans ridiculously uncomfortable? Too hot, too stiff, not soft or stretchy enough, and I was forever hiking them up.

I lived in Nexts black maternity trousers and teamed them up with my pre-pregnancy floaty/empire line tops.

I also splashed out on 3 JoJo Mama Bebe's wrap tops and a couple of their camis to go underneath which looked fab with existing maxi skirts I had or with my maternity trousers.

Biggest con out there were maternity knickers as far as I was concerned - they were SO expensive - just buy primark granny pants several sizes up (I'm a size 12 and I ended up buying size 18 knickers for the last couple of months :eek:)

My jeans drove me up the wall -I wanted over the bump (it was the middle of winter after all) and they were a nightmare to find to start with, then the jersey bump bit kept on ripping away from the denim waist band so I was constantly having to repair it, and I realise now I cannot stand the feel of half-mast trousers.

If I ever do it again I'm buying another couple of pairs of my beloved black jersey trousers and calling it job done.