Solving Your Maternity Wardrobe Woes

Throw out the oversized dresses, sweat pants, and your hubby’s too-big tees as well as the misguided belief that you’re not supposed to look good when you are pregnant.

When you start thinking like that, you forget to put in any effort to dress up. You don’t look attractive, so you don’t feel attractive, and pretty soon you give up trying to look good. It becomes a vicious cycle. You’ll be surprised how much of a mood-lifter clothes can be and how fun dressing up during your pregnancy can be.

Pregnant now with my second child, I assure you maternity fashions have come a long way since the days of drab shapeless dresses and unsexy T-shirts and sweats.

Scan the fashion pages of any women’s magazines and you’ll see mums togged in eye-catching maternity outfits. From comfortable and snug-fitting capri pants and sexy tube tops to glorious sundresses and glamorous evening gowns, there’s a perfect outfit for every occasion.

And mums-to-be don’t have to spend a bomb on clothes they’ll only be wearing for a few months, as they can now rent quality maternity wear for a fraction of the price to buy it.

Many maternity retail stores in Canada, Taiwan and the US offer maternity clothes for rent, while in Singapore, the rental option is catching on and is offered by one or two stores. Rental options like that, as well as the increasingly fashionable maternity lines mean pregnant women have great variety in the choice of clothes they can wear, and greater flexibility in getting them.

I know a lot of women assume that they either have to wear ill-fitting and drab maternity wear, or pay a lot of money to wear nicer designer maternity wear. But it’s not true. There are affordable and great-looking clothes out there. You just have to look in the right places and make the right choices – buy the basics and consider renting pieces you want to wear but only for a couple of times. These may range from elaborate evening- wear or a style you know your tummy will outgrow very soon. And never, never buy into that mentality that pregnant women aren’t supposed to look good!

Here are 4 tips that will help mums-to-be look and feel fabulous throughout their nine months:

1. Underbelly pants and tops that are not too snug around the waist are great for the first trimester.
2. Show off the bump with stretchy tops in the second trimester!
3. A great light sundress is best for that last trimester!
4. Hide fleshy arms with a great one-button sweater or jacket that gives room for your tummy.