Vol. 3, Issue 4, Part K (2017)

Abstract
Lactation is a period when women experiences physical as well as psychological changes. This period leads a woman to another level of maturity, i.e. her motherhood. She has her own demands and needs during this period, so her demand during lactation for dressing will be different from normal condition. Like absorbent type texture, looseness and the most important is specially designed dress so that she has no need to lift up the shirt while feeding her child and has extra home for free movement. Woman can improve herself by wearing proper dress, which can be created by using varied design techniques in an appropriate way. Color and design being the fundamental elements in dress if properly used enhance the personality of an individual. It is possible by developing an understanding of design that one can select clothing that will fulfill the wearer’s desire. Most of the lactating mothers just wear ordinary suits in which it looks very awkward while feeding the child and she feels herself out of place, even in markets, dresses specially meant for lactating mothers are not available. So it is very important to design construct some specially designed dresses for lactating mothers keeping in mind the comfort ability, becomingness and functionality regarding lactation. A study on existing clothing pattern of dress for lactating mothers and problems encountered was conducted with the same motive. Twenty five rural lactating women were randomly selected from maternity and children hospitals to know their clothing practices during lactation period and problems encountered with existing clothing practices during lactation period. It was found during survey rural women were not satisfied with their existing clothing practices during lactation period and wanted to change it by adding additional features in their dresses to make these comfortable.