As a man, finding maternity clothes isn’t a problem I’ll ever have to deal with. However, as the father of three, I remember my wife struggling to find maternity wear that was both stylish and flattering and at the same time comfortable. And on the occasions she did find something she liked, she was limited to how many times she was going to be able to wear the clothing.

Apparently my wife’s experience wasn’t unique. When Rakesh Tondon’s pregnant wife started sharing maternity clothes with her girlfriends, Tondon came up with the idea for a business. “She didn’t want to spend money on maternity clothes,” Tondon told Fast Company. “She would wear them once or twice and never want to wear them again.” He assumed other pregnant women faced the same problem. It would make more sense, Tondon thought, to rent maternity clothes rather than buy them.

So in 2012, a year after Tondon’s daughter Zara was born, Le Tote, a subscription maternity apparel company, was launched. Initially, Le Tote offered “mystery boxes” of clothing that women could keep and return at their leisure for a monthly subscription fee. Eventually, the company added the ability to purchase items and to choose the clothes in each box.

Le Tote currently has more than 20,000 subscribers, and most of them fit into the demographic that’s most likely to be pregnant and willing to spend on maternity clothing. Tondon describes his user base as the “31-year-old urban professional female.” About 44 percent of Le Tote’s customers identify as mothers at sign-up, and many put their subscriptions on hold for their pregnancies.

For $59 per month, women can subscribe to receive three garments and two complementary accessories at a time. Le Tote’s maternity brands higher-end options such as 9Fashion, Japanese Weekend, and Summer & Sage, as well as items from Le Tote’s general collection. The company hired a pregnancy expert to help it decide what types of clothing will fit a woman at different stages in her pregnancy, and adjusts the clothes it sends accordingly.

Le Tote is trying to thrive in a tough marketplace. Consider that there are only about 3.9 million babies born each year, and women are unlikely to continue subscriptions to a maternity company for more than a few months. Yet these headwinds aren’t discouraging Tondon from offering a value-add service to women during what can be a challenging time to shop for themselves.

Let us know your thoughts about Le Tote, and subscription commerce in general in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!