Looking and Feeling Good During Pregnancy

Image by Stephanie Knowles via Flickr

Most young mothers these days are probably not old enough to remember the good old days before the massive expansion of the internet and online shopping. It was not so very long ago that mothers to be either had to rely on someone else to buy their maternity clothes, or had to get up and go out and do it themselves. They had to make their way to the high street, perhaps first having to wait for a bus to come, then walk to the clothes shop or perhaps the clothing department of a department store, traipse around looking at the various sizes and shapes available, and all that for a single item! One very positive development during the intervening years, however, thanks to the advent of online shopping and the subsequent ease of buying such things, is the range and diversity of maternity wear now available to women without even leaving home. The most significant improvement has been the development of light, soft and most importantly stretchy materials that allow breathing and transpiration. Such fabrics are now used to make, for example:

 

• Bump bands
• Empire shirts
• Nursing dresses / tops / camisole / bras
• Skinny jeans / pants
• Maxi / wrap skirts
• Jumpers

 

A Fashionable Maternity

 

Now, thanks to the lucrative clothing industry and the associated fashion houses, we are constantly bombarded with messages telling us what is out of date, what is yesterday’s fashion, and images associating being sexy or attractive or successful with being in fashion. Such images, of course, come mainly from the corporate media which are largely controlled by the same shareholders as the fashion industry. Consequently these days there are very few young women who do not feel the need to be in fashion, even when they are pregnant and therefore not at all fashionably slim. On the other hand it has to be said that, a generation ago, pregnant women were mainly and, if you will forgive the pun, largely limited to wearing tents that could have slept the whole family. So often they were swathed in stifling polyester, rubbed and pinched by uncomfortable elastic waistbands and tummy panels, usually covered in floral prints and ruffled styles because that’s what pregnant women wore.

 

Accentuate those curves

 

Comfort is always a goal for a woman no matter how far along she is in her pregnancy. Being pregnant is uncomfortable enough and you don’t want your clothes to add to that. For years women have for some reason believed that in order to be comfortable your fashion sensibility has to be put on hold. This is ridiculous. Why should pregnant women have to accept that comfortable means muumuus in public? Looking terrible doesn’t make a woman feel good just because she’s pregnant. There are so many comfortable alternatives for pregnant women these days that look great. There are great styles and designs just for pregnant women made with new fabrics that stretch and keep shape at the same time. The wrap top and wrap dress can be a pregnant woman’s best friend. The wrap top is great because it gives all those curves a great fit and look. Your belly is nothing to be ashamed of and the wrap top does a great job of giving it just the right fit while making your breast look good. You can wear the same size wrap tops during your entire terms since they are usually made out of stretchy material and the wrap feature lets you adjust the size for a custom fit. The wrap dress is just as comfortable, attractive, and versatile as the top. A wrap dress fits and hugs your curves in all the right places. It fits all body types, even women that aren’t pregnant! The wrap feature again lets you completely customize the fit for that ever-changing pregnant belly waistline.

Dress As You Would

 

Women want to hold on to their pre-pregnancy style by wearing wardrobe staples, such as maternity jeans, tops and work wear. These days if you are a pregnant woman, especially at home, thanks to the above mentioned developments, you can generally dress far more comfortably than your mother could. It doesn’t really matter whether you are doing household chores or working from home, the same stretchy clothes are equally comfortable and appropriate and pretty. They can make you look positively attractive by actually drawing attention to those accentuated curves, rather than just hiding your contours completely. There are maternity jeans and t-shirts, skirts and dresses, nursing bras and tops, winter leggings and jumpers, just so many designs to choose from that you really can dress almost as you would if you were not pregnant.