From the late 1860s through to the middle of the 1870s women's magazines advised expectant mothers to adapt the construction of plain everyday garments to create clothes appropriate for the physical changes and demands of pregnancy and nursing. This rich blue silk velvet maternity and nursing dress was worn by Lady Eustace Cecil whose three children were born in 1865, 1872 and 1879. While its fabric is luxurious, its design and construction are practical. The dress falls from the shoulders with no waist seam and is front-opening. The bodice is not boned and the internal waistband fastens with a buckle allowing it to be easily adjusted. A pair of box pleats with a band of shirring above shape the back of the dress at waist height giving it form without constricting the body. Very few nineteenth-century maternity gowns have survived, so the dress is an important study piece.