
Maybe it’s just practice, training my brain to recognize my own beauty.
I was seven months pregnant and somehow shopping for maternity tops again. I grabbed a likely candidate from the pile and wrestled it on.
Well, that doesn’t look cute at all. I scrunched my nose at the image in the mirror. Must be something wrong with this shirt.
The significance of that thought left me in total shock.
I had spent the last 30 years struggling with my weight, criticizing my body at every turn. Stepping into a dressing room was an invitation for self-loathing — the only variable each time was the degree.
If I was lucky, I would find an outfit that properly hid my figure such that I looked pretty OK. It was always my body that failed the test, never the clothing.
That day, I realised that pregnancy had changed something fundamental for me: I loved how I looked. I loved my bump, I loved what it signified, and I loved how people treated me.

"I loved how I looked." Image via iStock.
I was very fortunate to be experiencing a “magical unicorn pregnancy” with almost no unpleasant symptoms thus far, and everything about it made me feel great. (Don’t hate me, I got plenty sick with baby #2.)
Somehow, my pregnant brain concluded that I looked awesome, and that clothes should make me look awesome, too.
Any shirt that didn’t look cute on me just wasn’t a cute shirt. My default assumption —Must be something wrong with me — no longer applied. It was total freedom.
I gloried in the horizontal stripes and favoured tops with cute little empire ties to emphasize my shape. I sought a “visible belly outline” everywhere I went. For the first time in my existence, I loved seeing myself in the mirror.
Unfortunately, this burst of body positivity vaporized pretty much upon my daughter’s birth. I had underestimated how much baby weight would hang on, and for how long.

Top Comments
I'm a size 14 and about 11 weeks with my first.
We're close to but haven't quite announced just yet - probably a week away. So, I'm a bit glad, for the first time ever, that I had a bit of a 'food baby' tummy so I can have my happy secret a bit more easily in the interim.
I'm looking forward to dressing a bit later - our spring and summer - but have found that what's in shops and online in Australia quite limiting. Or has ribbons on the waist with bows, ruffles, polka dots, florals... all a bit little-girlish and daggy.
I'm looking at ordering a clothes from overseas which are more contemporary and nicer, with a broader selection.
Take a look at Espirit's maternity clothing range (online) - I purchased pretty much everything of theirs!
Thanks for the tip! I mightn't have thought of them.