Women's Maternity Shorts Guide

Our original guide introduced maternity shorts with disarming directness — you may know them as maternity short pants — and then sent readers to the maternity pants guide for the full picture, which is the right instinct: shorts are pants with the legs cut, and every waistband decision is the same. This page covers what is specific to shorts: the band choices in summer, the lengths, and the fabrics that make a hot-weather pregnancy bearable.

If your third trimester lands in summer, shorts stop being casual wear and become infrastructure. The good news is that the category is simple and inexpensive relative to the rest of the maternity wardrobe.

Bands in Summer

The under-belly band is the summer default: a low, wide elastic that adds the least fabric and the least heat, and sits where shorts naturally sit. Full panels work in shorts too and give the smooth line under fitted tees, at the price of a warm layer over the belly — choose them for support, not for July. Side-panel and drawstring designs keep a regular-shorts look for tailored styles.

Fit check in heat: the band must not roll when you sit (sitting is most of summer), the leg opening must clear a thigh that may be fuller than it was, and the rise must let the band sit under the bump's curve, not across it. Shorts are bought a trimester at a time more than any other maternity garment — a pair that fits month five perfectly may be retired by month eight.

Styles and Lengths

Denim shorts mirror maternity jeans (a pair of cutoff-look shorts with a panel is the summer uniform of half the pregnant world). Tailored and Bermuda shorts in twill or linen take shorts to lunch and casual offices; the longer inseam — 7 to 11 inches — is the most flattering and the most forgiving. Soft shorts in jersey, terry or gauze are the at-home, errand and beach layer, with drawstrings doing the adjusting.

Length logic: as the bump grows, visual proportion shortens legs, so the inseam that looks right may creep an inch shorter than your pre-pregnancy pick — or you may prefer the coverage of the Bermuda and feel better entirely. Both instincts are correct; own two lengths and rotate by mood and mercury.

Fabrics and Where They Fit In

Cotton and linen breathe; stretch twill holds a shape; denim with elastane recovers. Avoid anything without give at the waistband seam line, and prize pockets that still function — panel construction sometimes deletes them, and you will miss them. Two pairs — one denim, one tailored or soft — cover a summer pregnancy for most women, washed in rotation.

The maternity pants and jeans guides linked below are the same category at full length, and the general women's shorts guide covers the styles beyond maternity; our explore list below includes the shorts product pages from the main site for more detail.

Shorts at Work and Other Boundary Cases

Shorts test dress codes more than any other maternity garment, so a word on the boundaries. In most offices, even casual ones, shorts remain a no — the tailored Bermuda is the exception that sometimes passes in summer, worn with a blouse and real shoes, and the maternity version is cut exactly for that negotiation. For everything outside an office, the boundary is yours to draw, and pregnancy redraws it for most women in the direction of comfort: the third trimester in August is not the season for anyone's opinions about hemlines. One more practical boundary: shorts and the hospital bag. A soft pair with a low band is kind in the first days home, when trousers feel complicated and nightgowns feel unfinished — pack the soft shorts, and let the denim wait for week two.

Photos From Our Original Guide