Best Maternity Leggings With Pockets

The short answer

Why pockets are not a gimmick

Pregnancy involves carrying a phone, a water bottle and often a snack, frequently while also carrying a toddler, a bag or both. Maternity clothes overwhelmingly have nowhere to put anything — dresses rarely have pockets, maternity jeans often have decorative ones, and leggings traditionally have none.

Add the specific pregnancy problems: bending to pick up a dropped phone is harder, holding things while you walk is less comfortable, and you are drinking more water and therefore carrying a bottle. A pocket that reliably holds a phone is a materially better garment, and it is one of very few features in maternity clothing where the marketing matches the lived experience.

What makes a pocket actually work

Depth

A pocket needs to be deep enough that a phone sits below the top edge when you bend. Shallow decorative pockets drop things, which is worse than having no pocket at all.

Fabric support

This is the one people miss. A phone weighs enough to pull a soft brushed-knit pocket downward and outward, so it sags against your thigh and swings when you walk. Technical knit holds the shape, which is why the ranking here tracks fabric more than pocket design.

Position

Mid-thigh on the outer side works best: high enough to reach without bending, low enough that sitting down does not press the phone into your hip. Pockets set too high press uncomfortably when you sit, which matters more late in pregnancy.

Closure, or rather the lack of it

Almost none of these have one, and that is fine for walking. If you want a pocket for running, you want one that is close-fitting enough to hold by compression — which is again a fabric question rather than a design one. See maternity activewear.

Everything else still applies

A legging with a great pocket and a waistband that rolls down is still a bad legging. The three usual failures are worth repeating:

• The waistband rolls. Thin over-belly panels fold at the top edge once the bump pushes against them. Ruched panels and thicker technical fabric resist it; a high rise helps.
• They go sheer. Across the seat and knees first, in light colors soonest. Buy dark if you want one pair for out of the house.
• They bag at the knee. Every legging bags a little by evening; the question is whether a wash brings it back. Technical knits do; cheap brushed fabric progressively does not.

The full picture is in the main leggings comparison.

How many, and which mix

Two pairs minimum, because you will wear them most days and need a clean pair while one is washing. The useful mix is one technical pair plus one or two cheaper pairs: the technical pair is what you wear out of the house with your phone in the pocket, and the cheaper ones become the indoor pairs regardless of what you intended.

A three-pack is tempting and it is rarely the economy it looks like, because the cost per wear on bagged leggings is worse than it appears. But as a supplement to one good pair it is a sensible purchase.

How we picked

Six axes, led by whether the pocket holds a phone and whether it stays still while you move — because this page exists for the pocket. Then the standard legging axes: waistband, recovery, opacity and value.

We read the current listings and the reported experience; we have not worn these. The method is on how we pick.

After the birth

Pocketed leggings become more useful rather than less. You will be carrying a baby with both hands and wanting your phone somewhere, which is exactly the problem a pocket solves. A high over-belly rise is also comfortable over a tender abdomen or a c-section scar.

If you want actual compression for the early months, that is a separate category: see postpartum compression leggings.