How to build a maternity and nursing size guide

A standard chart assumes one fixed shape. A pregnant body changes every few weeks. Ask the buyer for the size she wore before pregnancy and her stage of bump, then map both to your own sizes. Brands label sizes by letter, by number or by both, so show your own sizes in the grid beside the ones buyers already wear in other brands.

Use three stages: early, middle and late bump. Weeks are only a loose hint. Add rows for twins and for taller frames, and say which garments are built to last from the second trimester to the ninth month. Add one worked example under the grid, such as a usual medium at late bump choosing a large, so buyers see how to read it.

Stretch decides if a garment lasts. A jersey with elastane gives with the bump. A woven cotton shirt does not. Tag every style with fabric content, stretch direction and panel type so a buyer can judge what will still fit in month eight.

Panels come in several kinds: a full side-ruched panel, an under-bump band, an over-bump panel, a drawstring waist or an adjustable button waist. Name the type in a fixed field. Buyers read a field faster than description copy. Photograph the panel stretched and relaxed.

Add notes on how the hem sits as the bump grows and how the fabric behaves after washing, drawing on fit models and return comments. Front hems often ride up.

Nursing wear opens in many ways. A wrap top, a hidden zip and a clip-down cup behave differently when one arm holds a baby, so name the type before she orders.

Give each product one access type from a short list, add a photo of it open, and say whether it works one-handed with the buyer’s nursing bra. Layered tops with a hidden slit suit one-handed use in a car or on a sofa, while button-through shirts need two hands and a quiet room.

For nursing bras, use band and cup measures and tell the buyer when to measure, because sizes can shift as milk supply settles. Offer an easy exchange.

Many buyers want a garment that works late in pregnancy and through the first months after birth, so mark those pieces clearly. One dress that also nurses replaces two purchases. Hospital bag sets deserve a filter of their own, with front-opening nightdresses, soft waistbands, nursing camisoles, wrap cardigans and breast pads.

Bodies keep their own timetable. Offer a size note, such as sizing up in tops, and list recovery waistbands and belly bands as their own products. Never promise a body outcome.

Group these pieces under a postpartum tag so the filter finds them, and keep the wording kind, with no talk of getting a body back.

Tag every return with a reason: too small late in pregnancy, too long, nursing opening unusable or fabric too warm. Tags soon show which garments mislead.

Compare reasons with each order’s stage first. If late-bump buyers keep sending back one dress, move it up a size in the mapping or change its panel. Watch the exchanges as well as the refunds, because a style swapped up a size twice points to a mapping problem rather than a fussy buyer. Version the guide. Then you know which edit changed which result.

This week, take your ten most returned styles. Add pre-pregnancy size and stage to the order form, then rewrite the size notes on those styles before you touch anything else in the range.