Maternity clothes selection in UK / NEXT

While I was pregnant in the UK back in 2003, I had a stash of US-purchased maternity clothes with me. For the other stuff, I bought bits and pieces from the Maternity line at NEXT, from their catalog.

I'll be moving to England this time when I'm 16-18 weeks along, or so. I've been doing some shopping here, but didn't really want to buy an entire wardrobe for when I'm ginormous. I'd rather just get what I need, when needed, while in the UK. BUT... poked in at NEXT and they've only got 3 shirts, 2 pairs of pants?? Something like that? they didn't even have those simple t-shirt packs of v-necks or anything.

Is there a discrepancy between the online catalog, and what you can get from the shops & real catalog?

Mothercare - or the one near us anyway - had a very tiny selection, and our NEXT didn't have one at all. Maybe that has changed since then, and I'll have the Cambridge stores to use which should be bigger.

Still, any ideas? Are the selections better in the shops? Are there other shops that do maternity lines now that I don't know about? Or should I really just buy as much stuff as I can from Target & Motherhood before I leave?

Im having a real problem finding a good selection of maternity clothes.  I didnt see ANY in the NEXT near me and its pretty big, although i did see some online.  I found a small corner of Debenhams that did maternity stuff and bought a pair of jeans and a top... but i've not been overly impressed by the maternity selection over here. Im just buying stuff as i go as well, because since my baby 4th of July, i think when im heavily pregnant in May/June sundresses and skirts will be most preferable... which dont necesarily have to be maternity... just big.

I bought everything in the US. I simply haven't been able to find any good maternity place around here.

I bought most of my maternity stuff for Jean in the states from JC Penney and Target, apart from a black t-shirt with BABY on it silver glittery letters from Dorothy Perkins.  I thought they had decent stuff in Mothercare but they don't go to a high enough size for me (UK 22ish).

I, fortunately, was still in the US when I started to finally look preggers and need pregger clothing.

However when I did return to the UK I bought most of my tops off eBay. My jeans & trousers that I had before I lost a ton of weight before getting pregnant seemed to do just fine so I never bought maternity trousers/jeans.

Ugh. UK maternity clothes are the worst. If I were you, I'd get what you can in the US even if it's a pain to schlepp over there. There was one store that was OK - it might have been Dorothy Perkins, but for the most part, I had zero luck. Even most of my English girlfriends ended up buying a lot of their stuff off eBay from US sellers!

I've got a maternity shop literally downstairs from me; I don't even have to cross the street to get to it. :s  But this made me happy, because I was able to get trousers that didn't have that ghastly pouch bit on the front.  My favorite pieces that I picked up down there were from here:

http://www.funmum.com/

Simply gorgeous!

Definitely bookmarking that funmum site for next time as I see they do size 22 (totally want the t that says stand & deliver LOL)

Cute stuff, but I have a hard time swallowing their prices when I can get 3 shirts at Old Navy for one of theirs!

Oh, I hit up Matalan for shirts for the most part; I only really worried about buying trousers!   I had oh.. three pairs of trousers that I cycled through, as well as some of my stretchier skirts.

I must admit to being a bit surprised.  I had no problem at all getting lots of maternity clothes from Next and Mothercare here.  Next had a whole section of maternity clothes and I found most of the shops also had maternity lines.  Maybe the cities you are in just don't offer as much or something, but I felt like I had tons of maternity choices just a five minute walk away.  I didn't realize that the other stores might not offer as much--that must be it as I don't expect they've changed that much in the 11 months since I had my little one.  In fairness, I've moved since then, and I probably wouldn't even look in the town I'm in now.  I'd hop on the train and go back down to Cardiff where there are much better shopping choices.  I was pretty surprised at how much smaller the nearest Mothercare was.

I think I'm in the minority of preferring the trousers with the fabric that went up over my belly--I always felt like the small band under my belly was getting pushed down and spent forever hiking my jeans back up, which couldn't have been attractive.

I didn't have much trouble finding maternity clothes in the UK either. I am based in London and found that the bigger the branch of a store, the more choice.  I got some fun stuff from Next and Dorothy Perkins.  I also bought a few nicer things for work from Seraphine.  Looks like they are only in London, but I thought their stuff was a nice quailty for a reasonable amount.  They always had stuff on sale too, so that was nice.  http://www.seraphine.com/ 

I know that Gap maternity is usually in Gap Kids/ Baby Gap as opposed to the regular stores, but they are always good for decent quality stuff. 

I don't wear trousers while pregnant, as little as possible anyway. It is stupid degrees in chicago with 18 million feet of snow right now, so I'm suffering through pants at the moment, but will try to stock up on dresses before I go.

I'm hoping the Cambridge NEXT, which is quite big and was remodeled a few years back, has maternity in it. never been into their mothercare, just in the smaller towns nearby. Will do some hunting! I might make my mother in law go look for me.

I'd definitely have her look or at least ring, Sarah. I was in Exeter when I was pregnant with Jake and that's roughly the same size as Cambridge I think? I didn't have much luck. That said, you may have more luck if you prefer dresses and skirts! I couldn't find tights to fit me so never bothered (both mine were born in the early spring so I couldn't go without).

I think I'm in the minority of preferring the trousers with the fabric that went up over my belly--I always felt like the small band under my belly was getting pushed down and spent forever hiking my jeans back up, which couldn't have been attractive.

All my maternity trousers have the big belly panel. I love it and can't wear anything else.

New Look has some stuff which isn't so bad but you can only get a thing or two, you definitely wouldn't find your entire wardrobe there. I found a cute tshirt that says "Hands off the Bump". I wear it all the time.