I’m currently 34 weeks and have been keeping up a regular yoga/pilates programme throughout my pregnancy, which I am hoping will have help my stomach muscles recover. But I have seen and heard a little about wrapping the tummy post partum which is meant to speed up the muscle contraction. And yet, not sure how much of it is snake oil. For instance, there is the cinch and the BellyBandit.
Has anyone tried this? Would you recommend it? Is there really science behind this?
Is this your first baby? I just can’t imagine worrying about regaining a slim, trim figure right after childbirth given that newborns take up so much physical, emotional and mental stamina.
I have not tried it.
With our first, I noticed that no matter what I did it still took until 9-10 months for that last bit of baby pooch to finally disappear from my belly.
This promptly returned almost immediately when becoming pregnant with our second. I still have a bit of belly fat, and DD2 is 7 months old. Even with running, and losing weight everywhere else I see my abs, but that pouch of belly is still stuck under the belly button!
I was always excited when I could finally fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans without doing much beyond nursing and here and there walking. Not sure if I’d find cinching it all away as much fun, unless I was wearing a cute corset.
I would imagine any science behind it would borrow heavily from the studies on athletic compression.
I’m not pregnant, so I have no personal experience with baby belly, but I have always been on the slender side and then put on a little bit of flab and it felt like a freaking alien attached to my skin. The wibbly-wobbly looseness of a baby belly, especially laying on your side to nurse and looking at that would probably bother me (fine, shallow, whatever) and perhaps, subconsciously or not, change the way I felt about myself. It can get pretty lonely and weird at times post pregnancy with the constant needs of a newborn and with little adult contact for much of the day, I’ve heard.
Also, with a lot of the bending, stretching and lifting of a baby, the belly binding might work doubly as a back brace. Your muscles will be fatigued from the birth anyway, and while you’ll have your exercises help you, it will probably feel nice to have the support.
Or, you’ll hate it and it will make you feel hot and itchy and your skin will still be supersensitive. Who knows?
We’ll probably be pregnant next year, and it looks like something I would try given how weird my experiment with flab felt to me. Different balance from the weight distribution changes, loose ligaments, all change the way your body feels to you, and binding the flaccid belly closer to my center of gravity sounds comforting. Unless it’s really hot. Then I’ll be as naked as possible. 
Oh, and looking at those two sites, I’d buy The Cinch over the Belly Bandit.
The Belly Bandit’s marketing makes me want to punch someone in the face. The cutesy phrasings and the “Ultimately, the Belly Bandit® will aid in getting you back to your pre pregnancy hotness faster than ever!” are extremely irritating.
Pregnancy changes a body forever, and that’s okay. Pregnant women are extremely sexy. Strong healthy mothers are sexy. “Pre pregnancy hotness?” Sounds assy and immature, like a prom queen who just can’t wait to get back to the party. Plus, it just looks like a thick pad with velcro, and like a wider version of the belly band we use on incontinent male dogs.
I like that the cinch has a pocket for a hot or cold pack. That’s a nice touch (would be nicer if there was a pocket for the back too). It just seems like a much more thoughtful design, albeit more expensive.
And lunar elf, this “crunch” supposedly works on that belly pooch:
lie on your back,
put your legs together in the air perpendicular to the floor and
spread out your arms for balance
lift your butt off the floor with your ab muscles
relax and lower it down
(it looks a bit like you’re a baby getting a diaper change, getting lifted up for the wiping. This is why I say “supposedly” as it feels so ridiculous I don’t do it often enough to think any results I see might be from that exercise. But it’s the exercise Jillian Michaels has in the 30 Day Shred and that’s what she said it does so…just passing it along. ;))
Don’t know about returning to pre-pregnancy hotness, but if you end up with a C-section, a tummy band will make turning over in bed a LOT easier. 
Of course it’s snake oil. Most every “medical” device that isn’t supplies or prescribed by your doctor is snake oil. Note that nursing, if that’s an option for you, will make a real difference in how quickly you lose much of the baby weight, albeit not all.
Also – I’m assuming it’s your first kid – in a few weeks you will look back on this thread and laugh, laugh, laugh about how you used to have time to care about anything but getting the kid fed. Well, you would if you had time to read the Dope, which you won’t.
–Cliffy
Dude, I did nothing BUT surf the Dope after Whatsit the Youngest was born. I had my laptop by then, and I would just hold him and nurse him in one arm while clicking through the Dope with the other.
Regarding the belly band, I wouldn’t bother, personally. I have heard some people say that they gained some relief from back pain during pregnancy by using a belly supporter, but I can’t see how using one postpartum would be helpful at all. Your body is pretty good at shrinking things back up all by itself.
Japan and Taiwan has traditionally used tummy binding. My wife used one similar to the Belly Bandit, but more to support her back. It’s not going to make your tummy smaller, if that’s why you’re thinking about it.
I had heard that it helped compress the uterus, reduce fluid retention, minimise stretchmarks from unsupported skin after birth, and support the back while the core muscles are getting their strength back. So it’s not that I’m expecting it to cause weight loss or anything (for that, breastfeeding, a sensible diet and regular exercise incl walking and yoga are all planned once the baby’s here).
I had two big babies, and while I never tried a belly band, I must call “bulls**t”.
Immediately after birth, the doctor showed me how to check my uterus for contraction. NO way could you wear a band tight enough to do what they showed me and if you could you surely wouldn’t WANT to. Unpleasant.
I’ve never heard of anyone who retained fluid in their abdomen during or after pregnancy. It might happen, but I trained to be a midwife and I never saw it.
Unsupported skin, even the stretched out stuff, isn’t heavy enough to cause new stretch marks. And compression won’t help the ones that are already there.
As for the back support…maybe. But if you artificially support the muscles, they won’t have to work on their own and won’t get their strength back.
I sure wish I’d had one for late pregnancy though. The back pain from carrying around an 11 pound newborn was pretty intense.
I am way old and have never heard of belly binding after a pregnancy. Sounds like wishful thinking, along the lines of “my feet are too big, I’ll wear smaller shoes and my feet will shrink”. I didn’t gain a lot of weight when I was pregnant, in fact I lost a lot after delivery. Had myself a jiggly belly, though. Then I put a few pounds on, gradually, over the years as happens to everyone. Then I lost weight and though my jean size is smaller, I still have that damn belly and it’s never going away completely.
I gave birth in Japan both times, and the first time as I saw all the women start binding their stomachs from the first day of their fifth month I thought it was a bunch of hooey. I still do for the pregnancy part - surely you want to encourage your muscles to support the new weight, little by little? (Unless you have back pain or another reason…)
But I had a c-section with my first, and on standing up the first time I had the most sickening slithering sensation, not to mention being doubled up like a hairpin. The midwife watched me for about 24 hours then suggested that I might try a belly binder. The one she gave me was very broad, it went from my hips to just under my boobs so it didn’t squash the cut at all. It had velcro fasteners and the first time she helped me into it, it was like magic! I could stand up straight with no pain or pulling, and I felt “safe” like my guts weren’t all going to come spilling out! And I then had that hand that had been on my stomach as I walked free for the baby!
I used it for maybe a week or two. Maybe not even that long, but while I needed it, it was lovely. I used it for my second kid too, but again, only after the c-section and only till the stitches were out and maybe a bit afterwards.
Stretch marks occur during pregnancy, not afterward, so by the time the baby’s out, it’s too late. Compression of the uterus as I recall occurs the first couple days after baby is born and was mighty uncomfortable, I don’t think I would want to encourage that any more than I had to. But uterine contraction is mediated by hormones, not by mechanical means so I don’t see how that could help.
Honestly, as long as you don’t go overboard with it, I don’t see any harm in it if it makes you feel better. But you might as well get a girdle or compression pants insead, they are likely to be cheaper and easier to find.