What week do you start wearing maternity jeans?
There are no definite rules when it comes to maternity wear - do what feels most comfortable to you! However, you may feel that your bump is starting to grow around 14 weeks although you may not be showing yet. Most women start showing around 16 weeks and, by 20 weeks, you may find that loose-fitting or maternity clothes feel most comfortable.
Should you size up in maternity jeans?
It may be tempting to just buy your usual style of jeans in a bigger size but this doesn’t generally work because, while your abdomen may be fast expanding, the rest of your body will remain the same or thereabouts.
Maternity wear works in the same way as regular clothes - your usual size will be made to fit your proportions. For that reason, it’s best to buy your usual size in maternity jeans and, when trying them on, check that they fit well around your legs and bum. Buying too big may mean that they keep falling down, which can be incredibly annoying when you’re just trying to get on with your day.
What are the different types of maternity jeans?
You can wear maternity jeans with a stretchy waistband that fit under your bump or maternity jeans with a wide stretchy panel - usually made from soft jersey fabric - that will fit over your growing bump.
What is the difference between under bump and over bump maternity jeans?
Maternity wear is all about personal choice and comfort. While some pregnant women may prefer to wear their jeans under their bump, others will prefer the snugness of a jersey bump panel. Bear in mind that there are drawbacks to both options of course - with a bump panel, you can’t tuck in your tops. Under the bump jeans may not feel quite so secure and may occasionally slip down a little.
What jeans are best for pregnancy?
We rate Seraphine's Wolfe straight leg jeans as the best maternity jeans in our roundup. Beloved by A-list celebrity mums-to-be and Mumsnetters (who are all A-listers as far as we’re concerned), they offer comfort and style points through pregnancy and beyond.
How we chose our recommendations
Because we know that there’s nothing like a real recommendation from other style mavens, we first headed to the Mumsnet forums to find out which maternity jeans were rated by fashionable Mumsnet users. We compiled a list of the best maternity jeans they loved for fit, practicality, style and value for money. We then did some research across the wider web, looking at which maternity jeans were recommended by fashion experts and bloggers - and what customer reviews said about them too. Having collated all that information, we picked the best maternity jeans that we thought would make the best buys.
Why you should trust us
We work hard to provide unbiased, independent advice you can trust. We do sometimes earn revenue through affiliate (click-to-buy) links in our articles. This helps us fund more helpful articles like this one.
About the author
Mum-of-three Jenny Wonnacott is a Content Editor for Mumsnet, specialising in writing, editing and optimising pregnancy care and child play content.
Before joining the content team at Mumsnet, Jenny worked as a journalist for newspapers, radio, TV and b2b trades magazines for over a decade. She is also a bestselling sci-fi author (writing as J M Briscoe) and parenting blogger.
As a parent of three primary school-aged children, Jenny is passionate about making Mumsetters' lives easier through rigorous research of all items recommended in buyers' guides such as these, as well as product reviews and expert advice on all things pregnancy and child play related.