How mother’s well-being influences the relationship between clothing comfort and maternal–foetal attachment

Pregnant women’s well-being and health practices are related to a primary stage of interacting with one’s child during gestation. Caring for one’s body and foetus includes working to achieve comfort through maternity wear embodiment but the clothing industry has avoided linking the affective nature of clothing to women’s prenatal health. This study explores how pregnant women’s well-being moderates the relationship between maternity wear comfort and bonding with one’s child. Hundred and one pregnant women between 25 and 35 weeks gestation participated in an anonymous online survey. Results found that well-being moderates the relationship between women’s aesthetic, emotional and sensorial clothing comforts and maternal–foetal attachment. These results call for a commitment to support pregnant women’s gestational health by making the act of clothing oneself during pregnancy a more critical topic and public priority since the act of wearing and forming a relationship with clothing during pregnancy has major implications on women’s first feelings of parenting.