Maternity clothes help and advice please

[timmette]

Not in the UK at the moment and where I am maternity clothes seem to be either hideous or hideously expensive, so please can you tell me the UK shops that sell maternity clothes where I can buy online and send to my sis.
Last pregnancy I felt really frumpy and really not attractive and I think it really affected me so this time I really want to make a huge effort and look better this time.
Also on the subject my sis in law suggest just buying stretchy normal clothes - is this a good idea or doomed to failure.
Any advice from you fashionable people appreciated.

I have the concern about spending fortunes on clothes I'll not be wearing for very often although you do also wear them after the baby is born too for a wee while until your baby weight drops off so you do get a lot of wear out of clothing, more than you may think. I am pregnant with baby no.2 and with my 1st I simply bought a pair of maternity jeans and a pair of maternity combats and a couple of maternity tops from New Look although I bought loads of larger-than-normal-sized tops from Primark where you can literally buy about 10 tops for £30-40 quid! That was my comfy wardrobe!

On this occasion though I do need office/work wear as I also work from home but attend business meetings through the week. I have just logged into affordablematernity.co.uk and have spent £120 including delivery costs to buy 3 pairs of suit/smart trousers and 5 smart tops (1 for each day :) ) and I think that is really great value as they are designed to last through my whole pregnancy due to the wrap style and floaty tops and the adjustable waistbands on the suit trousers. They have a relatively small but lovely range of items to suit all shapes and sizes of pregnancies so I'd advise you to log on there too.

Hopefully this helps you :)

Dont want to sound like a complete cheapo but I have bought most of my stuff so far on eBay! Got a Lovely m&s limited edition new with tags dress for £13, a 2nd hand jojomama skirt, next top and mothercare dress for £10.01 and a h&m skirt for 99p!! Getting slightly addicted!! Lol

Am living in black linen trousers from Next's maternity range at the moment. Good buy at £20 - so comfortable!

Hi Timette,

I've just been struggling with this too (though am in UK so possibly a little bit easier for me). In the end I went into Mamas and Papas (www.mamasandpapas.com/ ) and half an hour later came out with jeans, shorts, combats, and a handful of t-shirts plus swimming costume. All for less than £150 which seemed to be a bit of a bargain having looked at a few online stores. All good quality and so far really comfy without being tent-like. Would really recommend it. But then I'm not one for spending any more time shopping that I can possibly get away with so all in one shop ticked my boxes as much as anything else