The first and most obvious purpose of maternity clothing is simply to FIT.  Your body is changing pretty rapidly, growing at an exponential rate particularly in the later months, and therefore the size clothing you need changes too.

The rapid rate of change in your body is one of the biggest reasons why maternity clothing often features elasticized waistbands — that and for comfort, as many pregnant women don’t like the feeling of a tight waistband pressing against their bellies.

Also, a pregnant woman is shaped differently than, say, just a large woman.  This means that a pregnant woman might require more room in her belly, but necessarily everywhere else.  So the sizing of maternity jeans and tops needs to be different than it is for larger women.

The other purpose of maternity clothing is to look attractive.  Think about it.  It’s really not that hard to make regular clothing fit — it might not fit perfectly, but it still fits.  However, it also looks like you-know-what.  Have you ever seen a pregnant woman in a way-too-small tank top that has to stretch to cover her belly?  It can be kind of obscene looking.

Maternity clothing, on the other hand, is especially designed to fit and look cute.  A maternity dress is cut to give the wearer more room in the belly, so that it doesn’t stretch too tight over the middle.

It’s this combination of purposes — to fit as well as to look good — that makes the maternity clothing industry so successful!

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