Gefen, I think you’re 100% right. AHM, I honestly don’t know what I would do if I got pregnant again (not likely at my age, but still…). And honestly, I have no idea what I will do when my daughters byz”H get pregnant. I don’t think there is ANYTHING available on either side of the ocean that is suitable for a pregnant woman who wants to be tznius to wear. Now if she still wants to be “cute and youthful” when she’s as big as a whale (sorry, don’t mean to be offensive, but I had a 10-lb plus baby so I know what it means to be BIG!!), then it’s time to rethink things.
Now, I agree with Aries, that we teach our daughters the wrong things if they think they always have to be skinny to be pretty. It’s so hard not to when that’s what everybody thinks is necessary to get married. (I have heard of some not so skinny girls getting married in Meah Shearim and those environs, but I’m no expert.) But still, I think we need to get some frum women to start designing some clothes like what I was able to buy a few years ago but have all but disappeared from the shelves and stores. I read somewhere once that the front of a pregnant woman should be covered with something “flowing” over. My daughter wants to learn sewing – she’s 15. I want to send her so she’ll know how to make tznius clothes even if she can’t find things in the stores. That may be our only answers.
Oh, just as a comment about the seeming flip-flop of non-pregnant women (even unmarried girls and young teenagers) wearing those maternity-looking tops that have the little pleats at the empire waist – my daughter wouldn’t be caught _____ in such clothes. It’s embarrassing for her when she sees unmarried girls in such clothes. And anyway, I don’t think they make those things big enough to cover a pregnant woman’s tummy in the 9th month.