New Look maternity range.

[DontWorrryBaldrickHasACunningP]

The time has come to buy some maternity clothing as my bump has truly arrived, yesterday after mulling over many sites I decided to head into town to purchase some maternity gear. New Looks range was pretty good and not overpriced. However when I got to the store I found out that New Look has decided that their maternity range will only be available online.

AIBU to think this is fucking ridiculous. Surly with womens changing bodies and sizes during pregnancy it would be beneficial to be able to try clothing on, also there is no guidance on their site as to maternity sizing.

Maybe this is out of perspective but I'm very annoyed, it seems like such a stupid decision to make a maternity range online only

It's the same with a lot of specialist ranges though. I often have to order my petite stuff to the store (whatever store it happens to be) to try on and then return what I don't want. I guess it's a space saving exercise.

first of all I can't believe some shops still have a communal changing room as someone mentioned above. seriously?! I thought they had gone long ago...

I had a baby 4 months ago and I really liked new look maternity stuff, bit boring but okay. I lived near a big city store and they had quite a big range, is it just the smaller stores that have moved it online?

next maternity trousers for work were my best buy, really comfy and washed really well.

I got a couple of bits from red herring but the quality wasn't great, I had a dress I washed 3 times and it looked bobbly and worn, but it was very comfy.

I really struggled to find maternity wear in Glasgow and at present I'm making do with leggings and bigger sized tops. Maybe I'm a bit hormonal but after I'd traipsed round for two hours and found nothing I felt like the retailers were telling me I should just keep my ever expanding body out of sight.

I found new look only good til about 6 months, then things like tops were too short (I'm 5' 10) even if i went up a size. Giving a lovely flash of the most stretch-marky bit of my belly.

I'd recommend peacocks and next. My next mat clothes lasted me two pregnancies, and my sister two as well! (Shes pregnant with dc2 now and has takne the shared bag of clothes back ) have another sister who's planning to borrow them for dc1 some time next year!!!

I recall buying at least 6 pairs of jeans from new look online so I had the choice of styles and sizes, then popping them back to the store for return.

Over a certain order postage was free. It was annoying but I guess it's a niche market and they need their store space for more popular ranges.

There was a change between my first and second pregnancies. Fortunately I just needed to top up for different seasons. Ending up at 5ft 2 and a size 10 with a 43 inch waist, I found that most high street ranges only covered the first and second tri. The third tri was pretty dependent on Jo Jo wrap tops with long vests, and leggings. The last couple of weeks, leggings became like razor bladesand I went for legwarmers when I was in the house.

I totally agree, OP. I live in Lancaster, so a fairly small place, but when I was pregnant in 2005 I was able to find at least a couple of items in the Maternity range in stock - in Topshop, Next, Dorothy Perkins, New Look (they had a big section actually), ASDA, Sainsburys and M&S. Also I could buy maternity and feeding bras - even if they only had one style in store - from M&S, Sainsburys, Next and ASDA at least. Anything more exciting had to come from Preston, where there was a wide range of stuff in multiple shops.

When I was pregnant in 2012 - Nothing! Literally not one shop in my city had maternity stuff in store. Nor could I buy a maternity bra - not even in M&S. I was shocked and complained to all but I just got shrugs and pointed to the website. I NEED TO TRY STUFF ON!

Is yours a big store? The smaller stores never did the mat clothes, mine only does womens clothes too, plus a tiny range of plus size. The one in carlisle (admittedly it was three years ago that i went in pregnant!) had a huge mat range, and they had mens and kids clothes too that my local one doesnt.

Might be worth contacting them to see if the range has been taken out of all stores or just most of them?

Agreed, it's really annoying - and it's happened only recently (there's less than two years between my two). My New Look mat jeans split on me just after the baby was born - one of my worse days, admittedly!
I agree with the OPs who mention ASOS and Red Herring and the JoJo sales pages. Deeply disappointed in the choice of M&S maternity bras though. Unless you go to an absolute hangar of a store, the bras only seem to go up to D/E at the most. I'm pregnant - I need 38Zeppelin please!

Allstoppedup

Yep maternity dungarees... loved 'em. They had elastic "braces" style straps so could just hoick them down in the loo. And the waist had movable buttons so could wear them after the baby arrived.

dontworrybaldrick

My local NL has 2 cubicles which you can never get into and one big room with benches and mirrors. Much like the school PE changing room. So anything I've bought in there I bring home to try on. :)

My first baby was due just before Christmas and I had the pleasure of trying to find a feeding bra in the shops on Christmas Eve. Not easy! Apparently it's all about parties at this time of year, not babies.

Good luck!

Yeah, it's really BS. M&S is my go-to store for boring but practical workwear and they also are online only - really annoying. Mind you it is a good training for once you have kids and you never have time to go shopping ever again.

primark also do maternity clothes i actually preferred primarks jeans and loose tops

It's about profit- it's not common for the majority of people to be pregnant who happen to be in store, so without making a profit in majority range maternity clothes aren't worth doing at all, let alone instore...

Matalan do some basics, tops and leggings and stuff, which I found comfy and washed well and they are a decent price too. We have a few stores near here and they all stock the maternity range, if you have one close by might be worth a try.

Also peacocks seem to carry a small maternity line in store. I had some of their jeans and they were really comfy and lasted throughout my pregnancy

Oh god yanbu. This was so annoying when I was pregnant. To be honest though I didn't buy much new, as I was lucky to have similar sized friends whose pregnancies didn't overlap with mine. We have a sort of communal maternity wardrobe.

I also found some really nice stuff for bargainous prices on my local Facebook selling pages.

I recommend Asos. Also, I'd get a couple of pairs of decent quality over the bump leggings. I got mine new on ebay and continued to live in them long after giving birth.