I work as a nurse and spend most of my 12 hour shifts on my feet. Over the years I have bought many different brands and styles of compression socks and hose (varicose and spider veins run in my family). This is by far my favorite. I bought these compression stocking for my second pregnancy. Why I love them: great compression, open toe, and don’t press on my baby bump. They did an amazing job of keeping my swelling down while working. I even wore them a couple of nights to help after I had bad swelling from my everyday activity. They make those aches and pains in your legs just disappear. I love the open toe too... downside is you have to put on socks before the hose... but your toes don’t get all squished and they didn’t roll up. Last was that they didn’t put pressure on my baby bump. With my first pregnancy I tried pantyhose... which worked well... but the waistband never sat in a comfortable spot. They were so high they made it hard to breath or increased my nausea or you pulled them below the bump and they pressed on baby and made you want to pee every 5 seconds. These did neither since they stop at your thighs. Down side to these stockings: they are compression hose.... and thus come with the difficulty of having to pull them up. For those who don’t normally wear compression socks I will tell you that any good pair of compression socks you wear require some work to put on... and at 9 months pregnant bending over to put any pair of socks and shoes on stinks... let alone some that require a little extra time to roll up. Best advice I can give is to make sure you start with them inside out and roll them up your leg... watch a YouTube video if you need a visual. They do fit of the small side so you may consider gettting a size up.... I am 5’5 and weighed 140 and ordered a medium. I bought some more in a large towards the end of my pregnancy because I gained lots of weight in my thighs 5’5 and 183... they were a little too big and I ended up with blisters from the plastic grips on a particularly busy day at work due to the loose fit. Even with that rough day they have been my favorite compression socks I have bought and I plan to wear them when I return from maternity leave as well :)