Maternity Clothes Rant 😭😭😭

[WaitingTillJuly17]

I'm 14 weeks and it's come to that time when my clothes are starting to get a bit uncomfortable. I decided to try Mothercare to get some jeans and one or two bits for work to start off with but everything in there was sooooo frumpy looking! I tried on some overbump jeans but I felt exposed as the waistband is so low that it barely half covers my vagina, is that normal?! I then tried on a dress but it was so unflattering and already had a split down the seam which made me question the quality!

A part of me resents even having to shell out on a whole new wardrobe especially as I normally buy clothes in the sales so I can get good quality clothing at more reasonable prices (think coast, monsoon, house of fraser etc) but those clothes last a long time, not for the 10 months or so that I intend to be in maternity clothes so it seems unreasonable to pay over the odds for them!

Can anyone tell me where to get a good pair of jeans that will cover my modesty and some modern outfits, pleeeeeeeease!

Newlook
H&M
Peacocks
Next

I had over bump skinny jeans from George in Asda. Ordered online. Proper over bump and didn't feel frumpy. Mothercare clothes are overpriced and crap imo. George also do good leggings.
I know it's not exactly designer but I also resented paying a lot and they were actually great.

Don't shop in Mothercare, their clothes are awful! Try Next and H&M or any other largeish shops you normally shop in. Just check their websites to see if they carry maternity wear.

JoJo Maman Bebe stuff is quite nice as well.

Check ebay for your preferred brands and/or places like NCT nearly new sales, local facebook selling groups to see if anyone has your preferred brands for sale. Or eat the cost now and buy full price Monsoon, HoF etc and plan to sell them on later via facebook or NCT.

New look has really nice over bump jeans

Oh yes forgot about supermarkets, they can be surprisingly good and no need to worry about longevity since you'll only want it for a few months anyway.

I find it really hard to find decent maternity clothes, particularly jeans. At 14 weeks you may find that there is too much material in the overbump ones over your bump and they don’t stay up.
I tend to do big orders on new look and Asos to try a range out then send back whatever is rubbish. I sent all 6 pairs back to Asos. They were rubbish!

You'll also be looking at different style clothes for a flattering fit than your normal style because your body shape will have changed. During pregnancy women tend to have either an apple or pear body shape depending on whether you have broad or narrow shoulders and whether you put weight on your chest or not. (Narrow shoulders, small boobs = pregnancy pear, Broad/rounded shoulders, big boobs = Apple).

Thanks everyone, I'll try looking at all those places. I do feel like a bit of a fraud as I'm only 14 weeks but my clothes are getting seriously uncomfortable and the only thing that I'm comfortable in is pyjamas but I'm pretty sure work wouldn't let me get away with that one....

I know you asked about jeans but for dresses I bought a few of the stretchy H&M basic range in a size L and they lasted me until 9 months. Bit baggy on the shoulders but not too bad.

Generally eBay is good for maternity bundles.

Ebay. It's very rare anything gets worn out in such a short space of time - I got some nice enough stuff without having to spend a lot of money.

I found H&M overbumo jeams the best personally.

I've recently been shopping g on ASOS a lot and I think some of their mat stuff looks great!

I second Jojo maman bebe. I got some lovely clothes from there.

Vertbaudet do nice jeans, I have a pair of Mothercare ones that I'm wearing at 33 weeks because my bump is so low everything else hurts, I'm living in Jack Wills leggings and extra long stretchy t-shirts, I look delightful 😂 But frankly I don't give a shit, I'm actually lusting after 1980's maternity smocks, just so long as there's not waistband. Personally I'd rather look like shit for 6 months and then buy a load of nice clothes that will last years (and an expensive handbag.)

I found peacocks, new look and Matalan all good but lucky enough to live near big shopping centre where they actually and the clothes in store. I wore mat dresses and bought mat leggings from eBay most days to look smart enough for work

Asos and Topshop do good maternity jeans, over or underbump depending on which you prefer.

For jeans I don’t think you can beat Gap maternity - they often have offers of money off. After 1 pregnancy of high street clothes that fitted badly and made me look for a frump I invested in Isabella Oliver the second time around. These have gone through me, my sister, my sister in law and now I’m 36 weeks with my 3rd so back to me again and they are like new. You can also get some bargains on eBay in the same make. I wear with kimonos (as it’s all pretty tight) and am often complimented on how they look. I’m a size 14 with a bump so no skinny minny and most of all they are super comfy!

14 weeks is that weird stage though when your normal waistbands won't do up but it's too soon for full on maternity-that's what I found anyway!
I've got a couple of pairs of overbump H&M jeans which were really cheap in the sale and fit really nicely, I don't like under bump jeans/trousers as they fall down on me. Have a look at stretchy t shirt dresses, they might be a good in between.
Most of my stuff I got in the sales or on EBay as I also didn't want to spend s fortune-one brand I thought was much better quality is Isabella Oliver, well worth buying a couple of basic tops.

I hate the feeling of jeans falling down, always wear quite high waisted so under the bump were a nightmare to me - my partner suggested a pair of braces - I wore them under my tops so no one saw, and was great when bump was still small, by far best thing I bought clothes wise when pregnant. Was really impressed with H&M clothes for cheap but look ok stuff!

Asos have the best maternity clothes and there sale is really good if you don't want to spend a lot. Also new look maternity jeans are good !

Do bear in mind you might need two or three rounds of maternity jeans/trousers, what you buy now won't fit you at 6 months, etc. First stage might be cheap regular jeans one size up? I would have done this had I realised that my maternity ones wouldn't do the distance.

As well as Mothercare these are the ones which generally stock maternity in (most large) stores if you have them: new look, H&M, jojomamanbebe, Peacocks. Most other places are now online only, even places that used to stock maternity even 12-18 months ago and flagship stores.

I like boohoo maternity clothes. Jeans are trendy and about £25 a pair.

Other than that, im going to stick to bigger non maternity clothes

I bought a couple of nice outfits from a maternity clothes shop (massive sale) and a maternity skirt and trousers for work. The rest was just loose fitting tops and shirts from gap and places like that. I didn't put on much bulk apart from my belly though.

Jojo are good and check out Seraphine, bit more expensive but nice stuff.

Try jeans extenders too or you can hook a hair band over your jeans button, through the buttonhole, back over the button. With a long top that can keep you going for a few more weeks while you choose new clothes.

Also, primark skinny jeans are quite nice and £9, might get a couple of months from just buying a size or two bigger.

I never bothered buying maternity jeans and just got a "belly band" instead and used it with my regular jeans all through pregnancy. They're a very stretchy (around 10% lycra) band like a boob tube except made to go round a pregnancy bump.

At 14 weeks, I just left the top button of my jeans open and the band covered up the gaping button under my mini bump. It looked like I was wearing a black top over the jeans so I could make it work with whatever I wore on top.

By 6 months, my jeans didn't close in the slightest and it was the band holding them up. I could wear it either under the bump or over. Somewhere in the last month I could only get one pair of very stretchy jeans high enough to cover my bum and hips, but the band (worn over bump) kept everything covered when I sat down.

I bought it (new) on eBay for around a fiver.