Maternity workwear tipped to expand

A partnership between Main Roads' contractors Therese Brooks and Lance Spice culminated in the development of high-visibility workwear built for two.

Mrs Brooks, who is five-and-a-half months pregnant, worked with Mr Spice, a safety and training manager, to develop clothing which was both functional and met industry safety standards.

The custom clothing features pants with a lycra front and elastic sides, and a shirt with velcro tags on the side for on-going adjustment.

Mr Spice, who is a father of five, said he was inspired to develop the new clothing line after seeing women in the Pilbara and in Perth suffer ill-fitting personal protective clothing.

"The main reason was that they were obviously pregnant, but I think you would find that most companies don't generally hold as much stock in women's sizes, if they hold women's sizes at all," he said.

"The worst case I saw was a young pregnant woman from a large mining company wearing a HiViz shirt, and she could only do up one button under the bust.

"The Australian Standard (AS/NZS 4501.2:2006 occupational protective clothing Part 2: General requirements) actually requires employers to put in a little more effort than supplying oversized or undersized PPE."

Mrs Brooks said it was obvious from the outset that she would be uncomfortable in standard issue workwear.

When asked at what point she realised she needed new trousers, she said: "Right from my first day of work".

"I came here in August and put on my work pants, and I wasn't even showing that much … I got to work at 7am and by 8.30am the buttons were undone and the shirt was untucked to hide it because it just didn't fit," she said.

"I'm a million times more comfortable now - I love stretchy pants."

Mr Spice saw the irony in the fact that the one place to accept his challenge of designing maternity PPE was a Welshpool-based company called SafeMan.

The company successfully adapted a design used by the Royal Australian Navy's disruptive patterned uniform, which is supplied to pregnant sailors.