Recently a reader asked about options for petite maternity clothes. The good news is that pregnancy only lasts nine months, and expectant moms won't need to wear maternity clothing the whole time. The bad news is that there are few maternity garments available in the petite range for short women. You'll find petite maternity pants, shirts, and jeans at JCPenny (Vendor's Site) in small petite to extra-large petite sizes. Lane Bryant (Vendor's Site) also offers maternity pants and jeans made for petites in sizes 14P to 28P.

For dresses and tops, sometimes the best maternity option is to find a regular, rather than maternity, garment in your pre-pregnancy petite size. A style that you might not normally wear – a trapeze dress, for example – may work just fine as maternity wear. The main reason many women don't wear a trapeze dresses, even though the stores are full of them this season, is that the trapeze style makes them look pregnant. So if you are pregnant, a trapeze dress may be a trendy solution to finding a maternity dress that fits. Choose a trapeze style that is wide at the bottom if you want to wear it during the last months of pregnancy.

Item Pictured: Ruffled Trapeze Dress (Vendor's Site). A style such as this one will work best in mid-pregnancy.
Photo Credit: Coldwater Creek