Pregnancy is a magical time—you’re growing a whole new human! It’s also a deeply strange time—you’re growing a whole new human inside your existing body! At no other time in your life will your body change as rapidly for as good a reason. Your changing shape needs clothes that can change, too: Enter maternity leggings.
There are a lot of maternity leggings on the market, and the quality varies considerably. The last thing you need during pregnancy is something that's uncomfortable, see-through, or cuts off circulation to your baby bump. That’s why we had a very pregnant writer (and third-time mom) put eight of the top options to the test.
The clear winner was the Girlfriend Collective Maternity Legging (available at Girlfriend Collective). The soft, opaque leggings were comfortable for all-day wear, and the high-quality fabric will easily last through nine months of wear (and beyond).
The Maternity Crossover Panel Active Leggings from Isabel Maternity by Ingrid & Isabel (available at Target) were a close second. They were soft, comfortable, and opaque. Plus, they are more budget-friendly than our winner, making it our Best Value pick. These leggings only lost points for some minor fading after our wash test.
Here are the best Maternity Leggings we tested ranked, in order:
Girlfriend Black Seamless Maternity Legging
Ingrid & Isabel Crossover Panel Postpartum Active Maternity Leggings
How We Tested Maternity Leggings
What You Should Know About Buying Maternity Leggings
Other Maternity Leggings We Tested
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Comfortable for all-day wear
Opaque
Lots of colors and sizes
Washes well
Visible panty line
Comfortable for all-day wear
Opaque
Limited visible panty line
Slight fading after washing
Girlfriend Collective's maternity leggings are comfortable for a full day of wear.
Ingrid & Isabel's maternity leggings are an affordable—and attractive—choice.
Hi! I’m Emily P.G. Erickson. I live in Minnesota with my husband and our two (soon-to-be three!) sons. I’m a freelance writer and hold a master’s degree in psychology. I write essays and journalism about mental health, mindfulness, and motherhood. Before I was a writer, I worked as a mental health researcher. I love applying my research chops to parenting-related challenges. Sometimes these problems look like how to help calm down a tantruming preschooler and sometimes, like now, they look like evaluating the best maternity leggings on the market today.
I conducted tests on the leggings when I was in the middle of my third trimester. I’m short (4’11”), but I have average-sized babies. This means they don’t have a lot of space in my torso, and I carry them out front like I’m smuggling a basketball. While I tested the leggings, I was close to peak pregnancy size. This means the tests represent well how the maternity leggings fit and feel when maximally bumping.
To test the leggings, I wore each pair of maternity leggings for two sessions: one lasting under-two hours and one lasting a full day. While I wore each pair of leggings, I wrangled my young kids, took walks, and did light yoga. To test how well they hold up over time, I washed and dried each pair of maternity leggings three times according to their care instructions.
During the tests, I assessed each pair of maternity leggings for comfort, fit, how well they stayed up, how well they accommodate my baby bump, breathability, suitability for working out, visible panty line (VPL), opacity, quality, whether they changed in fit after a wash, and how well they washed.
Some maternity leggings are designed to go all the way over your bump, while some are designed to rest on it and still others are meant to sit under your bump. As your pregnancy progresses, this last kind can be tough to wear, since the more pregnant you are, the more potential for a shirt-pant gap.
To avoid the unintentional crop top, we tested leggings designed to go part way or all the way over your belly. With this design, it’s important that the waistband is snug enough to stay up without feeling constricting.
Speaking of constricting, these leggings have a tough job: They need to be tight enough to stay up without requiring constant adjustment while also being flexible enough to allow for movement in a rapidly growing body. During pregnancy you have enough impacting your breathing and blood flow, your maternity leggings don’t need to be one of them.
If your maternity leggings are see-through, they’re not doing their job as pants. But plenty of maternity leggings struggle in this category. The stretchiness that’s so important to comfortable wear for your changing body sometimes leads to leggings that stretch to the point of transparency, particularly over the thicker parts of your body like your thighs or bottom. That’s why paying attention to opacity is especially important for maternity leggings.
During pregnancy, everything stretches to accommodate your growing baby -- including your skin. For many pregnant people, this means your skin is sensitive to fabrics in a way it hasn’t been before. So even if you’re not normally one to care much about whether your pants are particularly soft, softness is an important consideration for maternity leggings.
Even though pregnancy is time-limited, chances are, your maternity leggings will get a lot of mileage during those 40-some weeks. This means durability is important.
Lots of colors
Opaque
Stays above bump
Runs small
Not soft
Difficult to wash
Soft
Faded in wash
Requires frequent adjustment
Opaque
Smoothing silhouette
Too tight
Uncomfortable for all day wear
Variety of colors and sizes
Breathable
See-through
Uncomfortable
Didn’t wash well
Emily P.G. Erickson is a freelance writer with a master’s degree in psychology. A former mental health researcher, her journalism and essays about mental health, mindfulness, and motherhood have appeared in The New York Times, WIRED, Romper, and elsewhere. Emily lives in Minnesota with her husband and three children. For more from Emily, visit www.emilypgerickson.com.
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