Belly Binding After Pregnancy: What And Why?

What is postpartum belly binding?

After nine months of skin stretching and weight gain, the birth of a baby also leaves a big empty space behind in the abdominal cavity. The uterus needs to return to its normal size, fluid retention needs to resolve, and fat often needs to be broken down. Everyone is familiar with the postpartum belly that still looks pregnant. That's normal. You hardly want anyone to ask you if you are expecting again several months or even years after you have had your baby though!

There are many things that new(ish) mothers can do to get their pre-pregnancy body back. They include weight loss after pregnancy through dieting or just eating more healthily, exercising for weight loss and muscle toning, and breastfeeding which burns some calories. Belly binding is another tool some women use to lose weight more easily, and to reduce loose skin and the chance of developing a "floppy" belly that still looks pregnant.

Postpartum belly binding involves placing a tight wrap around the abdomen. This practice is supposed to help the uterus return to its normal, non-pregnant size, to aid the abdominal muscles that separated during pregnancy to heal, to make you look better while you work on losing weight, and to prevent a pot belly. Does it work? I honestly don't know. I tried tracking down studies that look into the practice of belly binding after pregnancy, but the only studies that mention the practice involved research about various indigenous peoples.

Belly binding certainly has a bit of a history, and there are quite a few cultures that practice belly binding. Contemporary belly-binder makers use this as a selling point, and imply that this is proof that belly binding actually does what it is supposed to do. I'm pretty sure there's a logical fallacy there somewhere :).

A brief history of belly binding

European cultures in which women wore corsets also practiced corset wearing after pregnancy, often with the specific purpose of making the body return to normal. If you look around the web, you can find pictures of English postpartum belts from more than a 100 years back, for instance. European belly binding isn't appealing enough, of course, so we should mention that folks in Africa, Asia, and South America have engaged in belly binding for ages as well. Some still do. It's a lot harder to find information about cultures that have never practiced belly binding after pregnancy, but I am sure that there have got to be some. Let's not forget that there are a lot of wacky traditional and modern postpartum practices that have no basis in science. Just because people do it, that doesn't mean it will work. In China, some people make sure to put their babies on their backs to sleep, so "their head will have a nice shape". In Eastern Europe, people think babies will get ill if they don't wear socks even in the boiling hot summer. In many cultures, postpartum women are expected to stay indoors and lie down as much as possible, for 40 days! You decide whether belly binding falls into the same category.

What you can do?

If you want to try postpartum belly binding, here are some more well-known brands:

• Belly Bandit
• La Leche League Intimates Shaping Maternity Waist Binder
• Medela Postpartum Support
• Brooke Burke Tauts
• Squeem belly binder

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Belly binding when you are not newly postpartum?

Many of us realize that that jelly belly is still there quite a few months or years after we've given birth. We expected that "baby" far to go away and our old body to return, or said we would engage in exercises and then we didn't. Some people that are not moms at all still have a flabby abdomen, and the waist line is a big problem for menopausal women as well. So, can you give belly binding a try, even when you are not newly postpartum? Some people say that you can. Obviously, those who give this a go should combine belly binding with a healthy diet and exercises especially designed for the abdominal area. But there is no reason not to try it, if you like.