Really Rosie

Good thing there’s Rosie Pope. The London-born entrepreneur has literally made it her business to help women make the transition to new mom easier, and not just when it comes to deciding what to wear. In addition to a clothing line known for its elegance and romance, Rosie Pope Maternity also includes MomPrep, a “training academy” for moms-to-be, as well as a maternity concierge service that assists women in doing everything necessary to prepare for their new addition, from designing a dream nursery to baby-proofing a Manhattan apartment. In fact, Pope and her concierge service are the subjects of Bravo’s new reality show, “Pregnant In Heels,” which premieres on April 5. Oh, and did we mention she recently gave birth to her second child?

Pope credits her husband Daron as the driving force behind the launch of Rosie Pope Maternity. “He suggested I be a maternity designer since I liked fashion and wanted to have babies!” she recalls. Pope was reluctant at first, as the idea was a long way from her neuroscience studies at Columbia University. But she took a job at maternity retailer A Pea in the Pod to learn more about the industry, and while there, she was surprised to discover how unsatisfied pregnant women were with their clothing options. If their choices were so limited in a city like New York, Pope thought, they must be even worse elsewhere. So she decided to take the leap, and Rosie Pope Maternity was born.

Inspired by the designer’s British roots, the line includes elegantly-tailored pieces for day and evening in both classic colors and romantic prints. Pope strives to make clothes that appeal to women of different style sensibilities, from the Upper East Side moms who visit her boutique to women across the country who shop her website. Since becoming a mother herself, Pope says her approach has evolved a bit; there is now less emphasis on evening wear and more on everyday pieces.

“You have a real romantic idea about maternity clothes before you get pregnant—you have this idea that you will walk around in beautiful, flowing dresses all of the time,” Pope says. “I think there has to be a balance between what looks good and what is easy to wear.”Nevertheless, Pope discourages women from thinking about maternity clothes as merely functional, often drab pieces that they’ll only wear for a short period of time. Instead she suggests they invest in a wardrobe of quality items that will make them feel comfortable and stylish throughout their pregnancy.

“When you’re pregnant, you’ll wear your favorite shirt all of the time. You get a lot more value from your maternity clothes than your regular wardrobe,” she says. “Nine miserable months of wearing clothes you hate is just not good. It’s like getting married and saying, ‘I’m only going to wear this dress for a day, so I’ll buy myself a sack.’”

MomPrep evolved in much the same way. After becoming pregnant with her first child (J.R., now 2), Pope found it difficult to find the kind of prenatal classes she was looking for.“I signed up to take classes at the hospital, and I was sent to a psych ward that was not attached to the hospital,” she recalls. “I had to pee all the time because I was pregnant, and every time I went to pee they had to buzz me out because it was a locked facility. I thought, ‘This cannot be the best place to learn about parenting.’”

Pope’s solution was a one-stop shop for classes and information on all things pregnancy and parenting, including prenatal fitness, infant CPR, nursery décor, child photography and more. Classes are intended to provide information in as balanced a way as possible. For example, one of MomPrep’s most popular seminars, “Epidural: Debunking the Myths,” is a lively forum led by both a natural childbirth doctor and an anesthesiologist who field questions from women about the popular method of pain relief.

“I think we’re in a generation that wants to learn about being a parent in different ways, but classes seem to be either very pro-natural childbirth or very pro-intervention,” Pope says. “I think people want to have all of the information in an unbiased way, so they can make their own decisions.”

And as if all that weren’t enough, Pope also stars in the new reality show “Pregnant In Heels,” premiering this month on Bravo. The show follows Pope as she does anything and everything to meet the often outlandish demands of affluent moms-to-be—from assembling a panel of experts to help a couple choose the perfect baby name to planning a wedding for a woman getting married one week before her due date.

“Do you know how hard it is to find a wedding dress for a woman who’s 38 weeks pregnant?” Pope laughs. “You change sizes every day!”

The show also chronicles Pope’s personal struggle to conceive her second child—a baby boy named Wells, born this past February. “It felt like if we didn’t show that part of our story, I’d be living a lie—like it was so easy for us when it wasn’t, it was really difficult,” she says.

Now, with a brand-new baby, a new show and a thriving business, Pope stresses the importance of maintaining a schedule to help balance the demands of her career with caring for her family.

“I think the mistake is trying to do everything at once—I’ll be playing Thomas the Tank Engine and thinking about diaper bags and china,” she says. “You have to figure out a way that when you’re with your children, you’re with them.”

Tighter is better. When you’re pregnant, you might as well have the bump where everyone can see. Plus, even though you’re big in the middle, everything else looks a bit smaller.

You’ll need a dress that makes you feel good both during the day and at night. Go for a wrap dress in a nice material.