To think all cardigans can be maternity wear

[alimaggieleggie]

Currently 19 weeks pregnant and I am desperate for maternity clothes. Having a shop around and a lot of maternity collections seem expensive and there's a lot of cardigans. Charging double than usual. Aibu in thinking that maternity cardigans are a waste of money.

You don’t really need maternity cardigans unless you want to be able to do it up right to the end... so depends when your due date is

I had a second hand maternity cardigan that was very handy for the hospital etc at full term but mostly just wore whatever cardigans I had before

A couple of larger than your current size ones from somewhere inexpensive could be very handy in the post partum early weeks (aka deflation period)

Ha ha - I agree OP. But then I could never really find ANY maternity clothes. I am 6ft tall and a size 16. I wore stretchy skirts and empire line dresses for most of my pregnancy, some of which I continued to wear after the pg. Maternity clothes were just not cut with me in mind!

I suppose it won’t matter if you don’t do the buttons up? I lived in maternity leggings and tunics when I was pregnant but I found it really hard to find maternity clothes - I’m only 5ft tall so trousers were always about a foot too long 😡

I only bought maternity trousers and a couple of tops towards the end for work, everything else was my normal clothes or normal clothes a size up. Cardigans were always standard ones.

Same issue with the height here. I just got stretchy dresses, tops, cardigans in a bigger size and skirts from primark. Jobs a good'n.

My maternity wardrobe was a couple of vest tops and tshirts, and some pants. I wore my cardigans and coat open with giant scarves to keep my bump warm.

I didn't think of buttoned cardigans 😶 only thought of wrap cardigans. As I never wear buttoned ones.
Also lots of maternity wear seems to have cutesy slogans e.g. baby on board (yuk) or are excessively flowery so just plodding on with leggings and gone up a size

I hated a lot of the maternity tops because of the cutesy slogans, I wouldn't wear silly slogans when not pregnant, why would I start now?. New look have some good plain colored long sleeved T-shirt's that I liked, ordered online, and I got a lot of plain long line vest tops from matalan and primark for not much money, they're still covering my bump now at 37+5. Cardigans wise, I've got a couple of waterfall front cardigans from primark, no buttons, go with everything, and no 'maternity markup'. They have loads of knitwear in there at the moment too.

Just buy tops and cardigans in a bigger size. All my regular cardigans just fitted me as I usually only wore them open with an oversized scarf. Most regular tops stretch over the bump anyway. The only maternity items I bought were over the bump jeggins and leggings from matalan as they were cheap and super comfort, I also picked up two over the bump pairs of black pants from Asda and two pairs of maternity tights from boots (they were on deal and fab quality) and one stretchy non maternity black skirt from river island(in the next size up) and this was fantastic and literally stretched with me through my whole pregnancy.

comfortable

for work +

Only actual maternity clothes I have invested in is maternity leggings. Once you go maternity, you don't go back (I lived in them post partum for months as well. They are so comfy!!)

Just bought some stretchy long bkack vests from h&m and wore with other tops over. Tunics and the like. The long vest covers my arse

This time I've also bought a few £8.99 maternity tops from H&M. Just because I had a voucher.

Oh and lots of stretchy vest tops

I bought 3 pairs of maternity jeans and 2 black tops on sale. The rest were primarni exclusives I got about 6 items for the cost of one maternity item.

You tend to notice over the course of pregnancy that tops get shorter. So as long as the wrap cardie is long it will be fine.

I found the vests I bought really handy for wearing under things for discreet breastfeeding. They meant I could whip a boob out without showing my whole stretchmarky belly. You lift the outside top up from the waist and pull the vest top down from the neck. Or with wrap dresses you can do it the other way.
Way cheaper and more versatile than special breastfeeding tops or dresses.

Isabella Oliver maternity leggings are the best things ever.

I had a couple of maternity cardigans, including a really cute short sleeved one from Topshop and got a surprising amount of use out of it. Both my pregnancies were at their peak at the coldest time of the year, and the more layers you have to wrap on your bump, the better.

When is your due date? If you're going to be at your biggest in March and April, something cosy might be no harm. Check ebay too.

I hated maternity wear in general as it was all patterned or floral and I'm a plain scruffy farm type but I just bought cardys a size bigger I am more the "waterfall" (whatever that actually means) than button type anyhow. Maybe if we go again farm chic will be a style

If you like wrap cardigans then just get a normal one but two sizes up. Wrap cardigans will have more space for a bump than button/zip ones as they're designed to cross over quite a bit at the front.

I lived in maternity leggings, longline vest tops/t-shirts two sizes up, a couple of maternity dresses and the few maternity t-shirts I found without daft slogans.

I found new look maternity clothes quite good, they were cheap and didn't seem to have as many daft logos on as some other ranges.

I know what is it with stupid slogans on maternity wear? I don't know what audience they appeal to but I guess they're must be one.

I had a winter baby and didn't buy any maternity winterwear. Most of my normal jumpers still fit at a stretch even in the last few weeks or I layered up long vest tops and ordinary cardigans.

Have to agree most maternity wear is rubbish. It's like they think pregnant women don't just want plain basics and ordinary stuff in slightly stretchier fabrics.

Although in fairness to New Look I found a number of their maternity items were the same as their non maternity lines.

I've just bought my maternity clothes at 22 weeks - 2 black jeans, 2 black leggings and a black long sleeved top, all from Asda. All my tops and things should be fine anyway. I always look at the cardigans and wonder why as an ordinary wrap cardi would do just fine!

Oh and slogans, I totally agree, yuck!