At the end of my last pregnancy, number five, I knew I was woefully in need of some new maternity clothes.  I figured I’d deal with that when it was time for Number Six and that I’d do what I did to get the maternity clothes I got during pregnancy number one that I’d been wearing ever since: go to Motherhood in the mall and pick up a couple of tshirts and a pair of pants and call it good. 

It was a real shock going into Motherhood this time around, eleven years later.  Their basic tshirt is now skin-tight and tissue-thin, and has a neckline that makes me blush.  I tried on just about every shirt in the store and only found one I was happy with, but only if I wear a camisole underneath it to make the neckline decent.  And the prices were ridiculous. 

I’ve been to Old Navy and Target and JC Penney and Ross and found the same thing everywhere I go: plunging necklines and clinging fabric.  It makes me sick, especially since I just read The Gift of Giving Life,which explains how sacred motherhood really is.  (An absolutely AWESOME book, by the way… thanks, Celestia, for making me aware of it!) 

So I’ve been on the hunt for modest maternity clothes.  I’ll tell you what I’ve found so far, and then I hope you share with me any resources you know about. 

I found a website called The Modest Clothing Directory.  It’s a great resource for anyone interested in modest clothing, not just for maternity.  It led me to several websites with good possibilities. 

I also found the Modest Mom Blog.  I really admire this woman’s style.  Every week she does a “Modest Monday” where she posts a picture of herself in an attractive, feminine, modest outfit.  Plus she has a business making and selling modest skirts and other clothes.  Looking at what she does for maternity skirts makes me think it wouldn’t be that hard to sew some myself, but as the busy homeschooling days go by with no time to even uncover and dust off the sewing machine I’m more and more tempted to just buy one of hers. 

Most of these things I’ve found are not on the low-budget end of the clothing price scale.  My awesome Catholic homeschooling neighbor, mother of nine, says I just need to hit a bunch of consignment and thrift stores and look for maternity clothes that are older, from back in the day when things like a plain maternity tshirt actually existed.  She says she’s had good luck doing that, so I really should make some time for that… maybe when the weather cools down a bit (it was 108 today in Oklahoma!) 

And then this same neighbor invited me over to a pool party at her house yesterday with some of her other homeschooling friends.  It was really neat to see the way everyone was dressed.  All of her kids and her friends’ kids wore modest swimwear.  All the boys and girls had rash guard shirts on and the girls had swim skirts or shorts.  I don’t think I’ve ever been to a pool party like that before and it was so comfortable with everyone so modest.  One of the other moms was also pregnant and she had a really neat swimsuit– a maternity rash guard and skirt.  I asked her about it and she directed me to mermaidmaternity.net.  I came home and immediately got online and bought myself a suit just like hers.  It’s going to be so nice being at the pool without being constantly checking my neckline and feeling embarrassed and exposed as people see parts of me they really don’t need to see, especially right now when I’m so much heavier than normal.  I’m really looking forward to wearing this suit to the ward swim party next month.  Ward swim parties would be so much more comfortable if everyone was modest.  Anyway, the suit wasn’t cheap, but to me it’s worth it. 

So those are some things I’ve found so far… please share any ideas and resources you have found!