Postpartum Girdle - Why More Women Are Choosing to Wear Them

What exactly is a Postpartum girdle?

If you go back only a few decades it was fairly common for women to use some form of postpartum girdle or abdominal binding after having a baby and in some cultures this is still widely practiced. We may think of it as an old fashioned idea with no actual benefit but more women are going back to this method of regaining their figure after childbirth.

So How Do You Use A Postpartum Girdle?

You start to wear the girdle as soon as you reasonably can after the delivery of your baby and once you have checked with you doctor or midwife that it is ok to begin wearing it. You then continue to wear it for several weeks.

What are the benefits of this supposed to be?

the postpartum girdle gives support to your back, helping to ease the aches and pains which often follow delivery
it helps to support your back with the strain of carrying around your new little bundle of joy
helps you to get back into shape and regain your pre-pregnancy figure

The third of these benefits is of course very hard to prove or disprove. There are a lot of women who have worn a girdle and report that they have regained their figure and a flat stomach very quickly. However how can you tell whether they would have got back into shape just as quickly without the help of the girdle? Some people do just seem to be able to regain their figure more quickly than others.

What is significant though is that some women who have used a girdle for the first time with their second child report that they regained their figure more quickly with the girdle. As any mother will tell you it is usually more difficult to get back into shape after your second child than after your first, so this does suggest that there are some genuine beneficial effects.

The manufacturers of postpartum girdles say that they help to get the displaced internal organs back into the right position and compress the uterus. This helps the body to regain its previous shape more quickly.

Wearing a Postpartum Girdle After A Cesarean Section

Women who have had their babies delivered by cesarean section can find a postpartum girdle useful in reducing discomfort and assisting the healing process. Giving support to the muscles which surround the site of the incision can reduce pain enabling the wearer to be more mobile which in itself makes recovery quicker.