Kai Walter holds a photograph of herself taken during her ninth month of pregnancy.

"There has been a huge psychological shift in the last few years," Loomis says. "People are saying, this is such a special time ¡ª we want to capture this moment." A key factor, she says, is that women are having babies at an older age, meaning they often have more money to spend on their pregnancy ¡ª and are more reflective about it.

A second-time client is Walter, the New Yorker who's planning a trek to Seattle in a few weeks. She loved the results of the photo shoot from her first pregnancy.

"Before I was pregnant I thought, you just get large and you're not as attractive," says Walter, 32. "But actually it was one of the best times of my life. I loved my pregnant body more than I could ever have imagined."

Walter says she's grateful to celebrity moms for one thing ¡ª there are much better maternity clothes out there, clothes that "make me feel like myself," like fitted tops and fashionable jeans, as opposed to the tent-like shifts or unflattering pants with big panels that made you want to hide for nine months.

Many credit designer Liz Lange for starting that trend. When she launched Liz Lange Maternity a decade ago, she says, it took detective work to uncover which celebrities were pregnant. She would then court them aggressively to promote her designs. Now it's a different story. "Their stylists are calling even before the results of the pregnancy tests are in!" she laughs.

Time was, Lange had little competition. Now, women have wider choices in chic maternity wear, including from mainstream designers like Diane von Furstenberg, who has a maternity version of her signature wrap dress. Or the Gap, for that matter.

Of course, as with most things, there's a downside to all this fascination with Angelina's, Gwyneth's or Katie's pregnancies, cautions Janet Chan, editor in chief of Parenting magazine.

Readers have told the magazine they're not particularly thrilled to see how pampered celebrities manage to still look so fit and fabulous even when pregnant.

"They've made moms-to be feel guilty that their bodies don't look like theirs do ¡ª especially because they don't have two nannies and a personal trainer," she said.

It's better when they can see a more challenged celebrity mom ¡ª perhaps like Britney Spears, she suggests. "Then we can say to ourselves, 'Hey ¡ª I know how to do this better!'"