AIBU to think ANY shops might sell maternity clothes?

[InThisTogether]

Hello all,
Having spent the best part of 7 hours traipsing around the whole of Birmingham city centre (bull ring, high street etc) yesterday, I am very frustrated to have come away with NO maternity clothes whatsoever.
Every shop I went into told me they don't stock them instore (no-one knew why). Mothercare was closed (?). H&M, Primark and New Look who apparently do actually have maternity ranges can only be ordered (and presumably paid for in advance) online and delivered in to store. Marks and Spencer told me I could always try on their non- Maternity clothes to "get a feel for them" (funnily enough, I know what clothes feel like). There is no Jojo in the centre.

After a while I started muttering that I didn't think people in Birmingham must actually have babies at all.
At a time when women may already be feeling unsure or uncomfortable with their changing shape, AIBU to want better options than blindly buying clothes I'm not able to try on until I've paid for, try my luck on unknown internet sites or wear nothing but sacks for the next 4 months?
Please someone stop me from my grumpy moaning...

I think it's just not commercially viable to stock them in "normal" stores, so all these places have online ranges only. I'm 35 weeks now, have bought from Gap and Amazon along with Asda for cheapies, all bought online.

If you can get to merry hill, h&m have maternity in stock usually, as do the mothercare there (which is massive and lots of choice), and sometimes the matalan. It's a right pain in the arse though, good luck!

Debenhams stock maternity clothes in their Red Herring range (or did when my sis was pg last year).

Peacocks usually have maternity range in store

Thanks all,
katniss I live a good few hours away from Birmingham but made the trip specially because I (very naively) thought they wpuld stock them. I'm going to go to Merry Hill this week so those shops will be top of my list!

Apart from two jojo jeans i wore my normal clothes. Is that possible for you. Think my sister did the same.

Primark does cheap nighties which are nice for when you in labour!

Essential I didn't even think of Asda or MrsMoggy Peacocks . I have them both nearer to me than Birmingham! Cheers!

I got some maternity gear from Topshop.
But the majority I bought online but I understand that's not always preferable.

This drove me mad too. I ended up getting almost everything from Jojo because it was the only place I could try things on! Seraphine are nice and have a few shops, there might be one near you?

The bestaternity t shirts I bought when pregnant were from a website called Zalando. I really struggled to find things and everything I got was online. Asda we're good and Next for jeans. New Look sizes seemed small to me (though I did gain 4 stone ).

I made the same mistake OP, thinking that shops would actually stock the clothes that they sell, how silly we are

As it happens my local town centre H&M have a small maternity range in store, I discovered this after going round a huge indoor shopping centre and coming away empty handed.

I did order a lot online. I found Next to be good, really soft elastic in the jeans. I bought multiple items, tried them on in the changing rooms when I collected them and returned what I didn't want in the same visit to the store.

It's a complete pain.
Only shops in my city that had stock in store were h and m and mothercare so I ended up buying online from gap and new look as well.
H and m jeans and chinos very good and washed well. Basic t shirts from new look and gap but gap is quite pricey so I waited for a sale.
Good luck!

LondonRach Some of my clothes are still fine, but as I was already at the top end of high street sizes (18/20) there's nowehere to go to get my usual stuff but in a bigger size, if you see what I mean. :)
Thanks everyone, I am collating a list of all these shops to go to. I think part of it is just wanting to do something nice to celebrate and treat myself - so far I've bought 3 pairs of maternity dungarees online and they're so damned comfy that I haven't really worn anything else- even my friend's 5 year old daughter said to me today "have you forgotten how to wear pretty clothes?".

I don't know if it's still there as my oldest is now 14 but there used to be a great shop in Solihull town centre. I found it hard to get clothes. Ordered mostly off blooming marvellous.

If you're going to merry hill, order into next and topshop and you can try on and return there and then if no good

Matalan also good and there's a good range in my local store to try on.

Do you have a Jo Jo Maman Bebe? I'm my city they are the only shop that stock mat wear in my city!

I didn't find anywhere that wasn't Mothercare to try on clothes and they were rubbish considering the price.

My best buys were from asda. You obviously have to buy online bit they had bigger sizes (being an 18/20 myself) and the clothes seemed decent enough quality. I used to do big orders, pick up in-store and try on whilst I was there so I could return anything I didn't like straight away.

A fellow pregnant and local to merry hill poster here!

Peacocks, mother care, h&m and Debenhams have in store maternity clothes, although the range isn't huge. This time round I've bought a few basics online from boohoo and asos as it's easy to return stuff (but I haven't needed to thankfully). Good luck!

NEXT maternity - send back what you don't want - pay only for what you keep.

Yeah it's rubbish. I wore pretty much my normal clothes or stretchy/jersey dresses. Ordering online is a pain. It's like with Tall ranges too! Hope you manage to get some bits

You're not wrong OP. Birmingham City Centre is completely void of maternity clothes. It's bizarre and ridiculous.

For M&S, I always order stuff to my local shop, try it on there and immediately return anything I don't want. That way you can try anything from their range you like without the online delivery hassle.

Two years ago I spent nearly 3 hours doing the same on the entirety of Oxford Street. Even the much advocated maternity bit of Topshop was useless. Massively annoying.