Should women wear a postpartum belly wrap? - Baltimore

Should women consider wearing a postpartum belly wrap?Pregnancy changes a woman's body, and a belly wrap can help her muscles. It's a band that's used to support the abdominal wall. Pregnant women use it to support their abdomen while they are pregnant, which can help reduce back pain.Mercy Medical Center OB-GYN Dr. Carolyn Cokes said it's also helpful to women after a cesarean section."For post-operative patients, we have a slightly different version of the belly band that can support the abdominal wall while they are healing from their surgery," Cokes said.Eventually, core-strengthening exercises are recommended to do the work of the wrap, Cokes said.

Should women consider wearing a postpartum belly wrap?

Pregnancy changes a woman's body, and a belly wrap can help her muscles. It's a band that's used to support the abdominal wall. Pregnant women use it to support their abdomen while they are pregnant, which can help reduce back pain.

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Mercy Medical Center OB-GYN Dr. Carolyn Cokes said it's also helpful to women after a cesarean section.

"For post-operative patients, we have a slightly different version of the belly band that can support the abdominal wall while they are healing from their surgery," Cokes said.

Eventually, core-strengthening exercises are recommended to do the work of the wrap, Cokes said.

Pregnancy changes your body, and it can take time to recover. Some women use a postpartum belly wrap after having a baby to help their muscles.

Studies show that wraps or binders might help with pain and healing after a C-section (cesarean section). They might also help support your organs and muscles as they move back into place after having a baby.

Benefits of Postpartum Belly Wraps

Postpartum belly wraps are sometimes called a belly band or a belly binder. Doctors suggest binding after major abdominal surgery, including after a C-section. There are benefits to using an after-birth belly wrap. 

These include:

• Helps relieve pain
• Helps you get moving
• Helps increase blood flow
• Helps muscles and incision heal
• Lowers swelling from surgery
• Helps with posture

Supporting your pelvic floor. Your organs move and change during pregnancy to make room for a growing baby. During pregnancy, hormones also make your pelvic floor muscles relax. This can cause you to leak urine after having a baby. 

Using a postpartum belly wrap can offer some compression to gently hold your muscles in place as your body heals.

Diastasis recti. During pregnancy, the two large muscles that run down either side of your stomach area split apart as your uterus expands and pushes against them. This is called diastasis recti. Usually, your separated stomach muscles will go back into place on their own by 8 weeks after giving birth.

Using a wrap can compress and support your muscles as they move back into place. A postpartum belly wrap isn’t a cure for diastasis recti. If you still have an obvious gap between your muscles after 8 weeks, you may have a condition called diastasis recti.

Although today’s belly wraps are trendy, they have actually been around for a long time, says Donnica Moore, MD, president of the Sapphire Women’s Health Group in Far Hills, NJ, and co-author of Women’s Health for Life.

“This is not a new thing,” she says. “Belly wraps were used for people with back pain because they increased abdominal support, which helped people with back pain get around better."