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Shopping for Maternity Clothes

by Annie Logue

I'm pregnant and am proud to say that I've spend only $500 or so on maternity clothes, excluding underwear. Now, before you scoff at that spendthrift amount, consider that I had three strikes against me:

No one was able to loan me a thing. Few of my friends have children. One who does lives in France. A second had borrowed and returned most of her maternity outfits; the few things that she bought she had already given to her sister. My sister-in-law is also expecting, so she had no clothing to spare. Thus, the best source of maternity clothes ? friends and relatives who have recently had children ? was closed off.
My husband is a biking fanatic with nary an ounce of fat on his lycra-clad body. His clothes barely fit me before I started carrying his child. Besides, bicycle shorts and wildly-printed road jerseys don't flatter pregnant women. This second-best source of maternity clothes (the closet of the man responsible for your condition) was also closed to me.
I work in a professional office with constant client contact. I like my job. It pays well so I'm willing to dress the part (but want to do so as inexpensively as possible). Maternity boutiques cater to women like me, but the dresses start at about $100 and the suits at $250 at such stores. No, thanks.

If you work at home, are married to a big strapping guy who hasn't been on a bicycle since grade school, and have sisters and friends who just completed their families, you can probably stop reading here. If not, the following tips may help you:

Check out thrift and consignment stores. Some carry maternity clothes. Used baby goods stores often have a maternity rack, so consider looking there (especially since you'll probably be spending time at such stores anyway). Thrift stores might not separate out maternity clothes from other donated items, but comb the racks if you are looking for something in particular. I got a great score on a maternity bathing suit at Goodwill ? I don't think it was ever worn ? that was mixed in with the other bathing suits they carried.
Look for men's clothes and women's clothes that are larger than your regular size. Regardless of the type of store you're at, regular clothes in different sizes may suit your needs, particularly in the first and second trimester. I bought some men's blazers and large-size women's shorts at Goodwill, for example. Larger sizes will also help solve the pregnancy dilemma of being too big for your old clothes but too small for maternity clothes, a stage that seems to last forever. Furthermore, non-maternity clothes are likely to be of better quality than petro-chemical maternity outfits, and you might actually wear non-maternity clothes after your pregnancy.
Check out sale racks. You know those loose-fitting dresses that those in the fashion world try to foist on us every few years? The ones that you look at and say, yeah, right, everyone will think I'm pregnant if I wear this? Well, you're not the only one. These styles seem to end up on sales racks or get shipped to outlet stores at the end of the season. When you? re pregnant, though, wearing something that looks like a maternity dress is a fine idea. I got two dresses for work this way.
Try a maternity outlet store if you need clothes to wear to the office. This is where I blew the bulk of my maternity budget, almost entirely for work clothes. The chain I went to, Maternity Works, has branches in outlet malls around the country. There may be other chains. Maternity Works sells clothes from the Pea in the Pod, mother's Work, and Motherhood boutiques. Like all outlet stores, it has a mix of real bargains and almost-full-priced merchandise.

Keep two things in mind when planning your maternity wardrobe. First, buy new things that match what you wear normally. You'll be able to wear some of your pre-pregnancy clothes as well as your shoes and accessories. The mixing and matching will be more productive if the maternity styles and color schemes are in synch with what you wore before the happy news arrived. Second, maternity sizing is a guess. It is not only relative to your pre-pregnancy size, but also affected by the number of babies you are carrying, how you carry them, and the amount of weight you gain. You won't know the latter two variables until after the need for maternity clothing arises. So, if you are a normal medium who sees a bargain (or gets an offer to borrow) a maternity small, take it ? you can get lots of wear out of the item even if it won't fit at the very end of your term.

The world will cut you a little slack in the fashion department while you? re pregnant. With careful shopping, you can cut yourself a little budget slack on maternity clothes even if you can't borrow a thing. The money you save now can go to nursery accouterments or to the little fetus's college fund. As a last word, you can console yourself by thinking about how popular you will be when all your friends finally decide to start having babies and start eyeing that maternity wardrobe you had to buy.

Annie Logue is a financial analyst with 'grand plans of early retirement and an interest in the environment'. She's expecting her first child in November.

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Shopping for Maternity Clothes

by Annie Logue

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