Best Maternity Swimsuits

The short answer

Why swimming is worth the purchase

Swimming is among the activities most consistently suggested in pregnancy, and the reason is mechanical: the water takes your weight, so you can move without loading your pelvis, hips or lower back. ACOG and the NHS both encourage staying active within what your own provider advises, and swimming is the exercise that remains comfortable longest.

There is also the simple relief of being weightless for half an hour when you have been carrying a bump for four months, which is not a clinical benefit but is a real one. Water pressure also acts a little like compression, which some people find helps swollen legs.

One note on stroke: if you have pelvic girdle pain, breaststroke is usually the one to avoid, because it forces the legs apart symmetrically. Front crawl and backstroke are generally better tolerated. See our SPD guide.

The changing-room problem

This deserves a section because it is the practical thing that decides whether you actually go swimming twice a week.

A one-piece has to come off over your head or down over the bump, wet, in a small cubicle, while you are at your least flexible. People who buy a one-piece for regular swimming often go less often than they intended, and the suit is the reason.

A two-piece tankini comes off in two independent maneuvers, neither of which requires bending much. For a holiday where you change in a hotel room it does not matter. For a public pool it matters a great deal.

What else actually matters

Bust support

Most maternity swimwear has very little, which is a real gap given that pregnancy usually increases bust size substantially. A shelf bra with actual structure is worth looking for, and it is the main advantage the better one-pieces have.

Chlorine durability

Fashion swim fabric degrades quickly in chlorinated water — the elastic goes and the suit sags. If you are swimming several times a week, that difference shows within a season, and it is why athletic-cut suits are better value despite looking sportier.

Coverage, on your terms

Suits here range from full swim dress to cutout one-piece, and there is no correct amount of bump to have on display. Buy the coverage you want rather than the coverage a category convention suggests.

Thigh chafing

Underrated. Warm weather plus thighs that are closer together than they used to be equals chafing, and swim shorts solve it where a brief-cut suit does not.

Do you need maternity swimwear at all?

For one weekend, often not. A stretchy non-maternity one-piece a size up gets a lot of people through a single holiday, and that is a legitimate answer rather than a consolation one.

Maternity cut becomes worth it when you are swimming regularly, because the panel grows with the bump rather than compressing it, and because a non-maternity suit stretched over a late bump pulls at the shoulders and rides up at the back.

How we picked

Six axes: bump coverage, bust support, changing-room practicality, chlorine durability, size range and value per wear. Changing-room practicality is weighted unusually high for a swimwear comparison, for the reason above — it is the axis that determines whether the suit gets used.

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

Two practical notes

Sun. Pregnancy can make skin more prone to pigmentation changes, and ACOG's material on skin conditions in pregnancy covers this. Shade, a hat and sunscreen matter more than usual, and a rash top is not a silly purchase.

Hot tubs and very warm pools. Raising your core temperature significantly is generally advised against in pregnancy, so hot tubs, saunas and very warm pools are worth asking your own midwife or OB about rather than assuming.