Plus-Sized and Pregnant

Motherhood's "Normal" shirt

Ladies. I found it nearly impossible to find affordable, cute, flattering plus size maternity clothes. It is as if the majority of the nation only wears up to a size 12. I went to Motherhood Maternity when I was ready to get some cute, little Maternity tops and stretchy waisted pants. (A big no-no for me before I was pregnant.) 

Motherhood's Plus...
see the difference?

First of all, they have a whopping TWO sections for my size. I walk in and get drawn to the adorable little patterned long sleeved t's and coordinating puffy vests and realize I am in the "regular section". I immediately go into "chubby girl" mode and look for the display with the frumpy looking t-shirts and head that way. My hunch was right. It looks like I can get bedazzled t-shirts, jeans, and maybe a few frumpy looking shirts. Yay. Motherhood Maternity - you made my pregnancy clothing dreams come true!

Next, let me tell you about Motherhood Maternity underwear. My Aerie undies (you can read about my love for them here) were getting a little awkward around my bump and not staying up (plus I didn't want to stretch them out). So, I head to Motherhood Maternity - the mecca of all maternity clothing stores - and look for undies. I see a 3 pack on sale so I grab 2 packs. I even go UP a size since undies tend to be more fitted and I don't want that feeling near my skin. I get home and try them on and I hear the crunching of the waistband as I stretch it up toward my belly button. It sounds like the undies have dry rot and they have NO stretch. Seriously? These are supposed to be maternity underwear? I throw them away and ended up dealing with my Aerie underwear for the duration of the pregnancy. I wrote Motherhood Maternity an email and never heard back. I guess that is the benefit of having a monopoly. Well played, Motherhood, well played.

It looks like I'm not the only one!

For those of you who may be thinking, "Macy's has a maternity section". That is owned my Motherhood Maternity. Kohl's? A Pea in the Pod? Destination Maternity? All a part of Motherhood Maternity. 

"Embrace the slouchy perfection of our easy-going
 floral print drawstring pants."

So, plus size maternity solutions? 

• JCP  and Sears have some options - just please steer clear of the image to the right (from JCP). They also do not usually have Maternity in the store so you are stuck doing online shopping only. Sometimes I feel like the designers think, "how can I best describe how a plus size woman likes to dress...maybe by using the words "slouchy", "easy going", and "drawstring"."  Designers, please take note. We are not the People of Walmart but if you don't make stuff in our size that looks acceptable, what do you expect?

• Old Navy and Target advertise as though they have our sizes but really they just go up to XXL which we all know is much different than 2x. To their credit, they do run large in their tops but forget about maternity bottoms unless you have a tiny hiney. Old Navy also usually only has an end cap of odd items for sale in the store.

• You can also think about renting your maternity clothes from places like Mine for Nine. If you are planning for multiple children, however, it would definitely be cheaper to buy a few key items in your size and then maybe rent some special items each pregnancy.

Bottom line? If you are plus size and pregnant or planning to become pregnant, don't be fooled by Motherhood's Monopoly. Don't waste your time trying all the department stores. Think outside the box and Mine for Nine will probably be your best bet.