When I first graduated veterinary school, I couldn’t imagine anything more challenging than finding suitable yet flattering work clothes for a mixed animal veterinarian. It took me years to find clothing that was durable enough, comfortable, and the right fit, yet looked professional. The clothing industry is seriously lacking in women’s work clothes. Is it an impossible concept to design sturdy, somewhat stylish clothes for professional, business/wrangler women like veterinarians and kindergarten teachers? I would order veterinary shirts from distributors that were a half body width too wide and about three inches too short (I have a long, narrow torso, or used to at least!). After a lot of trial and error, the perfect work shirt I found was actually a Nike women’s golf polo that I could get custom embroidered: perfect length and fit made of moisture wicking material (just in case other fellow mixed animal practitioners are on the hunt for work clothes). For my work pants, I ended up buying a casual khaki pant from Old Navy. I later found that the Old Navy pants were a little too cheaply made and not quite durable enough for my job, so I ordered some higher waisted Red Cap pants from the veterinary apparel magazine that work very well. Durable and stain resistant. Stylish? Not so much. An employee of mine that was in high school at the time pointed out that I looked like a soccer mom in these high waisted pants. I came to the conclusion that there are certainly worse things I could look like. In addition, the high waist helped me not look like a plumber when I practically have to crawl on the floor to examine an animal. Don’t get me wrong. I like to go out on the town and dress to the nines from time to time, but when you’re covered with cow crap and animal fur half the time at work, you get to the point where you really don’t care how fashion forward your work uniform is. In other words, after about three years of trial and error, I finally found the perfect work uniform for me. When I found out I was pregnant earlier this year, little did I know that I was in for even more of a challenge. Finding women’s work clothes was next to impossible. Women’s maternity work clothes? Now that’s a whole different ballgame! Because we all know pregnant women don’t work. I had actually been saving a series of photos of this wardrobe journey throughout my pregnancy with this specific blog post in mind. Due to the unfortunate event of my smartphone completely biting the dust, I lost all of those photos. This was a timely lesson for me to learn before Baby Pip gets here. No worries, folks! I now have Google Photos, so this should not be a problem in the future. However, for this post, you’ll just have to put up with my vivid descriptions and disturbing photos of me trying to fit into pre-maternity clothes. First Challenge: Maternity Pants For someone who has measured small consistently throughout pregnancy, I had to start looking for maternity pants quite early in the pregnancy process. It turns out the high waisted work pants I finally found did not lend themselves well to pregnancy. As early as eight weeks of pregnancy, I was having to unbutton my pants when I sat down in my vet truck. As my belly grew more and more, I tried to make my work pants last as long as possible, using the rubber band trick. I purchased long, maternity spaghetti strap shirts to cover the top of my pants, and of course I would wear a belt to hold them up. As I moved through each belt hole, it became clear at about 14 weeks gestation that I needed to start looking for maternity work pants. I came to this realization during a wardrobe malfunction while delivering a calf. I was reaching the maximum capacity of my high waisted work pants when I got a call one Friday afternoon around 4:45 P.M. (typical). A cow had been calving all afternoon without much progress, so they needed a vet to come out. My belt no longer even fit at this point, so I was relying on my maternity undershirt to cover up the fact that I could no longer button my pants (Yes, I realize I was in denial for awhile about needing maternity pants). No big deal, I thought. I’d just put on coveralls to cover everything up. My looser coveralls were already dirty, so I settled for my more fitted coveralls, which luckily still fit (barely). We went out to the farm and I was delighted to see the cow in an alleyway leading to a chute. Yay! At least this wouldn’t be an end-of-the-day rodeo. I checked the cow in the chute, and realizing the calf was big, decided to tie her up outside the chute for the calf delivery (It’s best to avoid a cow going down in the chute at all costs). We found a somewhat suitable post to tie her to, put a halter on her, and let her out of the chute while simultaneously reeling her into the post. I got the OB chains on both front feet and my assistant Omer and I started to pull the calf. As we pulled with more and more force, I heard a disturbing sound. That sound was the sound of the zipper on my coveralls giving way as I tightened my core and strained to pull the calf. I kept my poker face on and kept on working, and we eventually got the calf delivered. After tending to the cow and the calf, I looked down to see that yes, the zipper on my coveralls had given way, revealing my pants that were half buttoned and only partially zipped. I’m not sure if the producer didn’t notice, or was just being polite, but I appreciated them not acknowledging the wardrobe mishap. After this embarrassing experience, I knew it was time to find better work attire for my changing physique. I started in the department stores that had a reputation for a decent maternity selection in my quest for the perfect khaki maternity work pant. I searched the aisles of Target, Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, J.C. Penney’s, Sears, Dillard’s, and even the Motherhood Maternity store in our local mall. The maternity khaki pants I found were quite dressy and paper-thin. They were better suited for long walks on the beaches of Playa del Carmen and likely would not have lasted a day in clinical mixed animal practice. Since I didn’t foresee many beach strolls in my future, I put the pants back on the rack and started searching online. I reluctantly bought a pair I thought would work from Amazon. When they came in, I tried them on and surprisingly they fit! They were also made from thicker material that I felt would last at least for the nine months of pregnancy. For fellow veterinarians or people who are wanting a durable maternity work pant, here is a link to what I’ve been wearing to work everyday: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083RKCG4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 After experiencing the wonders of the stretchy waist band, I don’t know why I waited so long to get maternity pants. They’re heaven. In fact, I think I’ll keep them around after pregnancy for special food-gorging occasions like Thanksgiving dinner. Maternity Work Shirts Luckily, my Nike golf shirts lasted a little longer than my pants, partly due to me putting the wardrobe change off once again. I first started to notice that my shirts were feeling shorter and shorter. Luckily, I had purchased the long, maternity undershirts to wear underneath that gave me the length I needed. However, my husband recognized sooner than I did when it was time to purchase maternity shirts. He would try to drop hints like, “How much longer do you think you’ll be able to wear those polos?” to, “That polo is working awfully hard today,” to the even less subtle hint of, “I don’t think that shirt is going to last much longer if you keep wearing it.” Finally, I got the hint and ordered some maternity scrub tops. Luckily, the selection process for the maternity shirt wasn’t as challenging and drawn out as the maternity pants. It was pretty darn simple, actually. I ordered a selection of small and medium maternity scrub tops (some for my current size and more for later), and they fit just fine. I can’t stress enough ordering plenty of maternity undershirts. They helped with my pant fiasco but also kept clients from seeing down my shirt. Scrub tops are very comfortable, but they have the potential to gape open at the v-neck, revealing more than I’m showing my husband these days. A colleague of mine notes, “It seems 75% of maternity tops are low cut (Look! Your boobs are bigger! You should show them off!) Well, when you’re leaning over a Labrador to get a TPR (temperature, pulse, respiration), you’re giving clients a good show…” Maternity Clothing Stockpile I have also discovered the importance of having a stockpile of maternity clothes at work. I’m not sure why this caught me by surprise as I kept extra pre-pregnancy work uniforms at work. In my job, you get covered in cow crap, blood, and guts a lot. On a busy day, it can be hard for your staff to keep up with the laundry you produce. There were several occasions where I would come in from a farm call, walk back to my work closet, and nearly cry because I had already used the last of my maternity pants. At this point, I would either have to wear my dirty maternity pants for the rest of the day, settle for non maternity pants that quit fitting a long time ago, call my husband to bring me some if I was lucky enough to have this happen on a day he’s not working, or drive home and pick up some more. One particular Saturday we worked about 25 calves on a farm in the rain. I came back soaking wet to find no dry maternity clothes. Luckily, my husband doesn’t work Saturdays and could bring them to me. I was well into my pregnancy at this point, so I had to walk around the clinic (or hide in my office, more like it) with my pants half unzipped until my replacement maternity clothes arrived. I’ve found that for someone who gets as messy as I do at work, the magic number is about three to four replacement uniforms to keep in the work closet. Coveralls… Luckily, the many pairs of coveralls that I collected during veterinary school were pretty loose fitting, so I was at least able to get by during spring calving season and cattle work. However, as summer approached, it was clear that I wouldn’t be able to wear them the same way that I used to. Most of my lighter weight coveralls are made of blue cotton, with a zipper and snap buttons. I figured out zippers were dangerous as demonstrated in the wardrobe malfunction mentioned earlier in the blog post. I learned to zip up my coveralls just as far as they would go and then use the snap buttons to close the rest of them. However, I found that as soon as I started doing any kind of work, like castrating or delivering a calf, the snap buttons would snap open. Then I decided I would just snap them on the top and bottom and leave a gaping hole for my stomach to stick out. Not the most flattering, but it made for a good conversation piece with producers. Another colleague of mine who is a mixed animal practitioner in Kansas used the same method with her coveralls. Once that got too awkward, she said, “I just started stealing my boss’s coveralls. They don’t mind.” When you’re pregnant, having larger men in your practice that you can steal apparel from can be quite handy. Unfortunately, my associate is about 6’4” and probably weighs a little less than I do at this point, so the odds of me being able to steal and fit into any of his coveralls are slim to none, especially without having to roll the pant legs five times over. So consider yourself lucky, Dr. Potter! I won’t be stealing any of your work clothes. Footwear I am fortunate that I haven’t had to deal with my feet swelling at this point. My only footwear problem is actually getting my boots on in the morning. Ironically, the hardest part of my 4-mile runs that I’m still doing is putting on my running shoes beforehand. However, a lot of things can happen during the last month of pregnancy, so I’m preparing for the worst. Other colleagues of mine have struggled with swelling feet. You can get to the point where your boots don’t fit. One of my colleagues wore lace-up hiking boots that allowed more expansion and better support. You can then use rubber overshoes for farm calls. Me? I’m going to keep praying I don’t have this problem. My feet are pretty big to start with (I never grew into my feet), so I really don’t need to go up a shoe size. If my feet get much bigger, my fantasy of someday buying the Christian Louboutin black patent pumps with the red bottoms will be lost forever. They probably don’t make those in a size 11. The good news is shoes like that aren’t Great Pyrenees-proof, so that is likely a fantasy that will never come to fruition anyway. To all the readers, please let me know what other troubles I’ll have in the time that I have left. I’m currently in the nesting phase, so I have that mad determination to get things done by sheer will or iron death stare. I can get it taken care of in a jiffy.
1 Comment
Katie
9/18/2019 11:28:28 am
Loved the article, made me laugh for sure! I'm a large animal vet and work almost exclusively with cattle, and at 21 weeks, my pant situation is getting critical. If you found any great Jean's I'd love to hear about them! I'll never keep khakis stain free!
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Jessica Stroupe, DVM
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August 2017
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