Now that I have waved goodbye to my (occasional) flat stomach and (almost) proportionate figure, I have had to go out and scour the maternity sections of the high street stores so that my clothes start fitting me again.

I had envisaged it would be fun, after all, what girl doesn’t like an excuse to recreate her wardrobe? In fact when I told people I was pregnant a lot of my girl friends remarked what it meant for me in the fashion stakes — an opportunity to spend money and buy new clothes.

Why wouldn’t that be fun?

The problem is, once you’ve tracked down the few shops that actually stock maternity clothes you’re left with two choices — those shops that stock clothes for the stars; beautifully tailored, elegant and intricate in their detail and ludicrously priced, or the two rails of the regular fashion stores that apparently used the scraps of all their materials to vaguely piece something dull, drab and ugly to cover our emerging bellies.

Being responsible I opted for the cheaper brands. After all, I didn’t save money for a baby to spend on clothing it while it’s inside my womb and I can’t really justify such spending on a wardrobe I’ll be happy to store in the loft as soon as possible.

But as such my wardrobe now resembles the rucksack of a camper. Plenty of tents and practical but plain attire.

Every shop I have visited and every website I have browsed is filled with all the staples of the generic maternity wardrobe. Jeans that have no denim, strappy tops that are tight on your belly and loose everywhere else, a simple choice of plain colours or floral prints, combat trousers in every colour with the elasticated band across the waist and dresses with no shape at all.

I realise that pregnancy isn’t designed to be a fashion show. If it was we wouldn’t suffer bad skin, swollen ankles and puffy faces. But surely there’s a happy medium to be found somewhere. Women often already feel unattractive as the months go by, why make us feel worse by forcing us to dress in flowery tents which hang and tug in all the wrong places?

I have found a few important staples and I am grateful for the comfort that all these clothes seem to provide but there’s a definite lack of imagination gone in to designing this gear.

I don’t know the maths, but lots of women fall pregnant and many more than once. We’re not a minority group so we should be served better than this.

I’m starting a campaign. Anyone with me?