When Should You Start Wearing Maternity Clothes?

The short answer

Why timing matters so much here

Because the clothes you buy at week 14 are sized for a body you will have for about six weeks. Maternity clothes bought early are loose for a while and then fine and then, often, not quite enough — and the pieces that stop fitting are the expensive ones.

The pattern that wastes the least money is to buy in two rounds, and to spend the money in the second one. Early purchases should be cheap and few.

Stage by stage

Weeks 1-8: nothing

Your own clothes fit. If anything feels tight it is bloating rather than a bump, which is one of the commonly listed early symptoms and comes and goes. Buying anything at this point is buying for a shape you do not have yet.

Weeks 8-16: the gap

This is where nothing with a waistband is comfortable but maternity clothes do not fit either. The solution is not to buy maternity:

• One belly band. Wear your own jeans unbuttoned with the band over the top. Buys a month or two of your existing wardrobe.
• Two or three long tops. They cover the gap the unbuttoned waistband leaves, and they will keep being useful for the whole pregnancy.
• Stop tucking things in. Free, and it extends a surprising number of garments.
• Bras one band size up. Rib-cage expansion starts earlier than people expect, and tenderness earlier still. See maternity bras.

Weeks 16-30: the workhorses

This is where the money should go, because these pieces get worn for months:

• Two pairs of maternity leggings. These will outnumber everything else in your laundry.
• One pair of jeans you actually like. Not the cheapest pair.
• Two or three more long tops. Test them with your arms raised — that is the fit failure that catches people out.
• Whatever your job requires. Work trousers or scrubs, which are the categories where sizing up in your own clothes genuinely does not work.
• Properly fitted bras. Band size has changed by now.

Weeks 30-40: top-ups only

Buy for problems you actually have rather than anticipating. One more pair of leggings, a dress if you have an event, fleece-lined anything if it is winter. Avoid buying a new wardrobe at 34 weeks for six weeks of wear.

After the birth

You will wear maternity clothes for weeks or months afterwards, which is worth knowing because it changes the value calculation. Nobody fits back into pre-pregnancy jeans immediately, and a high over-belly rise is the most comfortable thing over a tender abdomen or a caesarean scar.

The order to buy in, summarized

The mistakes people actually make

One big order at week 14. The single most reliable way to end up with clothes you cannot wear, because you are shopping with measurements that will be wrong in six weeks.

Three pairs of the same panel style. You cannot predict which panel you will prefer, and buying three of one is how people discover they hate over-belly panels with three pairs of them. One of each is more informative. See over-belly versus under-belly.

Buying tops that are not long enough. A top that covers the bump standing still often does not with your arms up, and you will raise your arms. Test it.

Buying nothing and being uncomfortable. The opposite failure, and also real. A belly band and two long tops cost very little and make a month much better.

What you can skip entirely

• Maternity coats and blazers. Wear your own, open. Nothing needs to button.
• Maternity pajamas, mostly. A large soft t-shirt works, though a nursing-friendly nightdress earns its place from 36 weeks.
• Maternity gym kit, early on. Your own leggings sized up are fine until the bump needs the panel. The bra is the piece that genuinely needs replacing — see maternity activewear.
• Special occasion wear, unless you have an actual occasion. Renting or borrowing is reasonable for one event.

One note on comfort and skin

Stretched skin often itches, which ACOG's material on skin conditions in pregnancy covers, and synthetic fabric against it makes that worse. If something you have bought is making you itch, the fabric is usually why, and cotton or cotton-rich alternatives help.

Severe itching, particularly on hands and feet and especially at night, is different and worth contacting your midwife or OB about rather than changing your clothes.