For many small businesses, the prospect of both partners falling pregnant at the same time could prove a touch unnerving.

But for maternity-wear specialists Zoe Chinman and Amber Wallace it was just the opportunity they had been waiting for.

As owners of Yummy Mummy Maternity in Portland Road, Hove, the happy pair have helped expectant women put the glamour into childbirth for the past threeand- a-half years.

Zoe, 32, said it was about time they got to model some of the clothes from their shop on themselves.

She said: "As you can imagine, the pair of us are certainly turning heads on a busy Saturday in the shop, with most customers saying, do you have to be pregnant to work here?' "We just answer, no, but it helps!'."

The couple set up the store after first getting pregnant in 2003.

Working in an office, with two boys on the way, they found little for glamorous, glowing mothers wanting to show off their curves.

Now they are both expecting girls, just three weeks apart.

Zoe, of Saxon Road, Hove, said: "When women are pregnant they need to feel they can look good and celebrate their bumps with style, and that's what we're doing now.

"We had known each other for six years working in an office in Brighton but then both left to have our boys.

"I said I thought there was a need for a shop selling yummy maternity wear as there was very little on the high street. So we decided to open our shop selling glamorous and gorgeous clothes, not frumpy stuff, from all over the world."