If you've spent any time looking for maternity clothes and come away frustrated, you're not imagining it. The fit problem in maternity wear is real, it's documented, and it's almost entirely the category's fault — not yours.
Here's what's actually going on.
The sizing problem Most maternity wear is sized like regular women's wear — small, medium, large — with extra fabric added at the front for the bump. This assumes the only thing changing is your belly circumference. It doesn't account for the fact that your bust, hips, back, and waist are also changing — often at different rates, often unpredictably. A size medium at week 16 might be a completely different fit at week 28.
Research backs this up. In a study of pregnant and postpartum women in India, fit came up as the second-highest purchase barrier overall — and by the third trimester, 77.8% of pregnant women cited fit as a reason they hadn't bought maternity wear. That's almost all of them, in the stage when they need it most.
The waistband problem Underbelly waistbands — the kind that sit below the bump — are the most common waistband type in maternity wear. They're also the most uncomfortable by the second trimester for most women. As the bump grows, an underbelly waistband has nowhere to go. It digs in, rolls down, or requires constant readjusting. Overbelly panels that fold over the bump and sit at the natural waist are consistently reported as more comfortable across all three trimesters — and into postpartum. They're also less common, because they require more fabric and more considered construction.
The stretch problem A fabric needs actual stretch to accommodate a changing pregnant body. Not the minor stretch of a cotton-jersey t-shirt — meaningful stretch that recovers its shape wash after wash. Cotton with 5–8% elastane is the standard that works. Pure cotton without stretch pulls across the belly, gaps at buttons, and rides up as the bump grows. A lot of affordable maternity wear uses fabrics with insufficient stretch, which means it fits poorly from the start and gets worse.
The real solution The fit problems you've experienced aren't a personal sizing issue. They're design failures. What to look for: overbelly waistbands, fabrics with genuine stretch, silhouettes cut with extra ease in the body (not just extra fabric at the front), and pieces sized to accommodate bust and hip changes, not just the bump.
be imli is built around exactly this. Overbelly panels as the default. Cotton-spandex that moves with a changing body. Fits designed for the full pregnancy, not just the bump.
See how the fit works →
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