1. How to Flatten Your Postpartum
Belly Quickly
2. Postpartum Belly Binding
3. How To Get Your Flat Stomach Back After Pregnancy - The Belly Wrap Secret
4. Belly Wrap after Pregnancy
5. Ancient Mommy Makeover - Belly
Binding
6. Unwrapping the Secrets of the Post Pregnancy Recovery Belly Wrap...
1. How to Flatten Your Postpartum
Belly Quickly
Written by
Laurie Gonzalez Milliron
(http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Flatten-Your-Postpartum-Belly-Quickly&id=2284654
)
Okay, so by
now you have your precious bundle of joy in your arms. You look down at your
sweet baby blissfully and you are in awe of motherhood and your baby. But,
there are a few things that you were not expecting. One of them is how flabby
and out of shape your belly would be after delivery. There is hardly any way to
escape this unless you are blessed with incredible genes and even then your
belly may require a little work on your part to get back to flat. There are some things that you can do to help
flatten your midsection and return to pre-pregnancy shape quickly, and this is
where binding or wrapping your postpartum belly comes in along with some other
good ab flattening tips. I have birthed four
children. For the first two births, I never really considered belly binding. My aunt kept encouraging me to do so, assuring me that binding
would flatten my belly and get me back into shape fast. I was young and
laughed off her suggestion as mere myth. For the last two births, at which time
I considered myself older and wiser, I decided to indulge my aunt and give
belly binding a try. It has been the best thing I have done to get my new mommy
tummy under control. Think about this for a moment - your belly has carried around
another human being for nine months. Your abdominal muscles get stretched out
and weakened as your baby grows. Once you deliver your baby, your muscles are
very weak and are going to need some extra support. Here are some tips to
follow to shrink down your postpartum belly quickly.
Wrap your
belly as soon as you can after delivery. There are several good abdominal
binders and compression garments on the market for this today. You can use a
strong girdle, belly binders that are sold in stores and online or if you are
short on cash you can even use a plain bed sheet by cutting it down to about 12
inches thick and leaving the length. Place the center of your strip on your
belly and wrap around your torso and tie it back in the middle near your navel.
Don't tie too tightly, you don't want to constrict, but rather support your
belly as things go back into place. How do you think women in the eighteenth
century got their waists to be so tiny? It was all of those corsets under their
dresses which over time left them with tiny waists even if the rest of their
bodies were larger. This is the same principle behind belly binding.
Walk, walk,
and walk. I cannot say enough about the power of walking. Put your belly binder
on and take your new baby for a walk around your area to get some fresh air. If
the weather is bad, you may consider walking at your local mall or some other
spacious indoor area. Walking will make you feel good and you will get the
exercise you need to begin toning your body. Just be sure not to overexert
yourself and of course, always follow your doctor's recommendations for
postpartum exercise.
Finally
,
really consider your posture. When you are slouching you are not giving your
body total support and your neck, shoulders, back and abdominal muscles all
suffer and may feel fatigued. From now
on, you should try to stand straight with your body in alignment. Make sure
both of your legs are in a straight line and that not just one of your legs is
supporting most of your body's weight. Breathe deeply and draw your belly button into your spine and imagine
them touching. This is how you should stand in order to be supportive of your
belly and its healing process.
While my
aunt has been the advocate in my life for belly binding, I can't say enough about
some of the postpartum exercise programs I have encountered. There is one in
particular that really stands out to me which I have enjoyed very much and
learned a lot from. You may want to look at the book, "Lose Your Mummy
Tummy," by Julie Tupler. It is excellent and Ms. Tupler provides some great techniques for supporting
your postpartum belly. As always remember to take your diet into account and
make sure that you are eating healthy foods and drinking plenty of liquids.
Remember,
Rome
was not built in a day. It took you nine (plus!) months to get here and it may
take you a full nine months or more to get your tummy perfectly flattened. Just
hang in there and be sure to spread the word to other new moms and encourage
each other!
2. Postpartum Belly Binding
Written by Cherylyn
(source: http://mamasandbabies.blogspot.com/2008/10/postpartum-belly-binding.html)
The concept
behind belly binding is to support the muscles and skin of a woman's midsection
after having a baby. I know all too well how loose everything is after giving
birth, and it seems to take a very long time for everything to knit back
together, and most women will tell you that your belly will never be the same
after having a baby.
Here's an
interesting snippet about the history of belly binding:
"For
centuries, Japanese mothers have used their “Sarashi”
to speed up weight loss and toning of the abdominal muscles and skin after
childbirth, while Hispanic mommies believe their “faja”
helps bring all the muscles used in the birthing process back together again.
No matter what she calls it, women in
Indonesia
,
Thailand
,
Singapore
,
Latin America
,
Mexico
,
Spain
,
England
, and the
Philippines
have benefited from using an abdominal compression wrap after childbirth."
My husband
who is a massage therapist says that from a muscular standpoint belly binding
makes complete sense. The vertical abdominal muscles separate
during pregnancy to allow the belly to expand and accommodate the growing baby,
leaving a large gap after giving birth. Ideally, we want those muscles
to come back together, but in many cases it takes months for that to happen. He
says that belly binding would, in theory, hold those muscles in their proper
place and facilitate faster healing.
Another
interesting note is that we see weight lifters and construction workers wear
wide support belts to support their back and core. It makes sense to me that a
woman who has just given birth would need that kind of support as well.
3. How To Get Your
Flat Stomach Back After Pregnancy - The Belly Wrap Secret
Written by
MRS Great Caruso
(source: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Get-Your-Flat-Stomach-Back-After-Pregnancy---The-Belly-Wrap-Secret)
Haven't you
wondered why there is no easy cure to flabby tummies?? Why isn't there
something to help women get back in shape easily after losing control of their
bodies' shape during pregnancy?? Well, such an article has not been created
yet, but I assure you that the belly wrap (aka belly band) is the one article
that will aid with getting your stomach flat again. It Worked For Me And Many
Women I Know.
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with any belly
band company. I write this because I want to share my experience and provide a
more thorough and complete source of information for women who are researching
this option. As I did not find enough information when I was
doing the same.
Most of the
time, when women experience their first pregnancy, they become reading freaks.
I am sure that most women out there, especially with their first pregnancy,
read every book that came to their reach. The pregnancy book, what to expect
when you are expecting, during pregnancy books, delivery books, after pregnancy
books, first year of baby books, getting back in shape books...you name it. All
this reading is amazing for learning and feeling a bit more comfortable and
secure with that huge first time experience. But no book out there (that I know
about) has ever mentioned the real deal. No book out there will really prepare
you and warn you about what happens to the body after giving birth. If you
think that gaining a few or a lot of pounds, swelling, momnesia,
and hair loss are all you will have to deal with, let me tell you something,
you are nowhere near the truth!!!
You Don't Know What Is Crawling Up Your Leg
While some
women (lucky them), experience almost no after-birth effects, most do
experience them. Do not worry, it is common, and you are not the first to
experience these. The big butt, huge boobs, loose skin, and even the blues are
all reversible. The sooner you start working on these after giving birth, the
better.
My first
baby was born on February 2008. I had the healthiest of pregnancies and almost
no discomforts what so ever. I gained the weight I was supposed to gain and
never even got weird cravings. The last two weeks were a bit uncomfortable
though, as the baby kept growing and my poor skin kept stretching to give him
room. The burning sensation was not fun. Finally, I had to have a c-section,
because my baby was way too big for my frame (as the doctor put it). I guess
that is what happens when a little Colombian woman (I would say average
actually) marries a humongous American. I don't even want to think about what
is going to happen to my best friend who married a German.
And well,
the c-section is a bit painful the first few days, but other wise you just have
to be extra careful. That is what had me worried...No
exercise for 3 months at least. Gosh!!! When and how was I ever going to get
back in shape?? Right then, I definitely decided to try out my mom's old
secret: the belly wrap.
I was
worried. Not that I was huge after the baby, in fact I only had 7 lbs extra, of
which most were water retention that the body gets rid off naturally. But I was
definitely not toned and was very out of shape. And it was going to end up
being worse if I was not even allowed to climb stairs. Oh I tell you, it is not
an easy time for a mom. As happy as you can be about your new baby, every time
you look in the mirror all you see is something that is not yourself.
I started
wearing the belly wrap the day I got home from the hospital, which was the
third day after giving birth. I wore it 24x7, only taking it off to shower. And
not only did it get my skin reattached to the muscle, but it gave me a lot of
support also, as the stomach muscles are very weak after pregnancy.
I stopped
wearing the belly wrap after six weeks. I wish I had taken pictures of the
before and after, because WOW did it work!!!
How The Belly Wrap Will
Get Your Stomach Flat
Belly wraps
have been used for centuries for different medicinal purposes. Japanese medicine
insists on the importance of posture, support and warmth on the abdominal area,
and they achieve this with their Haramaki (belly
wrap). Belly binding in
Japan
is something as common and natural as eating rice everyday.
Latin
America
calls it Faja and Latin women have also used this
binding method for centuries, searching to provide heat and energy.
India
and parts
of
Europe
believe wholeheartedly on its
benefits.
By
compression, these wraps are designed to help get the loose skin attached to
the muscle, avoiding things like water to accumulate in that specific area(water retention). It is as simple as that!!! Now a days, banding is used after liposuction, as the grease
that is in between the skin and the muscle is sucked out and the skin needs
pressure to reattach to the muscle. SIMPLE and IT WORKS.!!
Just be
aware that the belly wrap will take care of loose skin and support the stomach
muscles on getting back to work, but if you want your firm six pack back, you
have to work them out (as soon as you can).
The Belly
Wraps can be worn within 24 hours of giving birth and for a period of 4 to 8
weeks.
Other Benefits Of The
Belly Wrap
-
It
will be an everyday reminder of reaching your back-to-shape goal.
-
If
you feel that your torso and abdomen areas are very week and that you are
finding it a bit difficult to sit up and move in general, the belly wrap will
give this area support allowing more mobility and therefore letting you be more active.
-
Support
on the abdomen when you carry the baby. If you have noticed, your stomach tends
to stick out more when you are carrying the baby. This only promotes the abs to
hang more. The belly wrap will keep the abdomen firm and tight.
-
Some
belly wraps aid with blood circulation and cellulite reduction. Read the
specifications to find out.
-
It
aids with good posture and corrects it.
4. Belly Wrap after Pregnancy
Source: http://www.targetwoman.com/articles/belly-wrap-after-pregnancy.html
Every woman
is worried about the big butt, belly or loose skin around the navel that
develops after pregnancy. In few cases, even after the baby is out, loose skins
hang over the navel of the delivered mother making her feel huge and bulky as
before. Worry not as all of them are reversible through proper exercise and
nursing.
Imagine it
has taken nine months for your skin around the navel to stretch and find way
for your baby. It will take more or less the same time to shrink as well. The
uterus needs minimum four to five weeks to contract to its normal size. The
cells that swelled during pregnancy start releasing the fluids in the form of
urine, sweat and vaginal secretions.
Finally the
extra weight gained during pregnancy is burned while feeding babies or through
exercises. However, the post pregnancy tummy remains for some women especially
for those who ignore exercises that concentrate on the stomach.
More than
couple of methods are adopted to flatten the belly
after pregnancy. Exercise; especially stomach crunches and
stomach-strengthening movements are found to be the best belly flattening
methods. Many women who undergo c-section (cesarean) prefer belly wrap since
they cannot exercise for the initial three months.
Belly Wrap
Belly wraps
have always come in handy for those women, who feel that they are totally out
of shape after cesarean birth. Belly wrap can be worn immediately after giving
birth for a period of 4-8 weeks. It is always better to check with your
gynecologist before wearing a belly wrap.
Belly wrapping
is nothing new. It has served different medicinal purposes through centuries.
Such wraps have proven effective for people with back pain since they increase
abdominal support.
Termed as Haramaki, belly wrap or belly binding is quite common in
Japan
. Japanese
medicine claims that flabby tummy can be reversed through proper posture,
support and warmth on the abdominal.
Latin
American women have used Faja (belly wrap) for
centuries together to reduce puffy tummies. They follow the same principle of
providing heat and energy to reduce the loose skins around the navel.
India
and
Europe
have also followed the same methodologies to
reduce tummies developed especially after pregnancy.
Overall, it
is believed that belly wraps work by the compression technique. The puffy skin
needs certain amount of heat and pressure to reattach to the muscle. A belly
wrap provides the same. In other words, the belly wrap provides gentle
compression on the abs that helps the uterus to return to its normal size
quicker. It helps new moms get rid of puffy stomach.
Remember,
belly wrap helps only the loose skin to reattach to the stomach muscles. It
does not help you get back to your original pre-pregnancy position. You need to
supplement the belly wrap with few exercises to achieve the same. Belly wrap
combined with exercise helps you achieve a gorgeous figure within a short
period of time.
5. Ancient Mommy Makeover - Belly
Binding
Written by PSI_Main
(source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_630476_23.html
)
The other
day I came across an amazing concept known as belly binding and what I read
pretty much amazed me.
Loosely, you
can call belly binding a sort of a non-surgery tummy tuck in a style that
speaks of a grandma’s post-pregnancy advice. Practiced by women since time
immemorial, belly binding has surfaced over time in some variation or another
almost every culture and continent.
This home
remedy tummy tuck cum mommy makeover was performed by Mayan midwifes as a last
duty after the baby’s out. Using a binder, the abdomen was held as tight as
possible to heal the muscles and repair the tears.
Similar
practices were observed in Latin countries as well.
The
Japanese, on the other hand used a combination of a cloth called a sarashi and the spirits to heal the bodies of mothers who
had recently delivered. Traditionally, the obi or sash worn with the kimono is
known to help Japanese women as well.
6. Unwrapping the Secrets of the Post Pregnancy Recovery Belly Wrap...
Written by Kim Vespa
So what do Cleopatra, the Virgin Mary and I all have in common? The fact that we wore a Post Pregnancy Recovery Belly Wrap after our babies were born!
The use of a Post Pregnancy Recovery Belly Wrap as a medical aid to help new mums heal and recover after birth is something that has been around since almost the beginning of mankind. Somewhere along the way in the Western world when TV’s, toasters and mobile phones became the rage, Belly Wraps vanished and were almost forgotten. With thanks to our Eastern, European and South American sisters, we have now rediscovered and embraced the practise of these clever little things.
When I wore my belly wrap after the birth of my first son, I wore it religiously, conducting a little experiment of my own, because initially I was a bit dubious... “How can a wearing piece of material actually have any benefits!!”, I thought to myself. But a strange and miraculous thing happen... while using my wrap my tummy started to shrink - A LOT!! I had put on around 23kgs during my pregnancy. And considering I was only 60 odd kgs to begin with, this was a lot of weight. It was a long hot summer during my pregnancy and I slowly day by day just got bigger and bigger and bigger. My husband and I attended a very close friends wedding the week before I was due and looking at the reaction from people and at the photos that were taken, proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I did in fact resemble Violet Beauregarde from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In those last days of my pregnancy (I ended up being induced 11 days after my due date – yes sisters, at 42 weeks, three days shy of the Black Saturday fires!!) I remember walking past the mirror in our house and catching my reflection in the glass of a shop front as I walked and waiting for this baby of mine to arrive and would think “Who is this person looking back at me, she is NOTHING of who I remember myself to be!!” YIKES, I was starting to get a little conscious, how was I going to shift this weight?
So with my Belly Wrap packed in my hospital bag amongst all the other gorgeous new things that you spoil yourself with when going into hospital, I took it out day 1 post delivery and put it on.... I looked at my hubby and said “I’m going to give this a shot!”.
Loads of friends and family came to visit our new adoringly gorgeous full haired baby boy in the hospital and at home in the following days and weeks, and I started to hear the same recurring comment, “OMG, look at you, look how much weight you have lost – and LOOK HOW FLAT YOUR TUMMY IS!!!”. I would smile and say thank you, secretly knowing that I had a little helping hand.
So back to what I was saying in the first place, I did wear my belly wrap religiously, and I did get a huge kick out of watching the Velcro strip getting thinner and thinner as I was able to tighten my belly wrap more and more each day.
Wearing my belly wrap made me feel taut (because anyone who has had a baby will know how their belly feels in the following weeks afterbirth – think the VERY opposite of taut!). It also made me feel snug, it gave me a great posture and it gave my confidence to get up and about and take my baby for walks or to do housework around the house without the feeling of my bits jiggling everywhere. It also vastly improved the 3 finger wide abdominal separation that I now had. And on top of all of that, within a few weeks, my tummy looked COMPLETELT FLAT! Quite frankly, I was sold!!!
Now I do my very best to spread the word of the gospel... the miracle that is Belly Binding. And my audience is everywhere – I am a thirty-something woman living the suburban dream with girlfriends, colleagues, play groups, little league, childcare and parks full of women who are reproducing en mass and who love being educated. Because let’s face it, after your baby comes, everything is about them (bless their little cotton socks...) or about all those things that women love to talk about... are you breastfeeding, or not?; are you following a routine, or not?; is your baby sleeping through the night yet?; blah blah blah.... But who is asking you about YOU? How are your “bits”?; have you managed to find time in the day to shower?; how are you feeling about your body right now?; is your lower back very sore? (by the way, a lavender wheat bag really does the trick with that!).
So now I talk to all walks of women about how freaking awesome a belly wrap will be for them, and I do smile when I hear their initial response when I raise the topic. Girlfriends sans children or first time expecting girlfriends will most likely say to me, “but what ARE these things for!!??” with a bemused and confused look on their face. Similarly, my girlfriends who come over for a coffee with their crazy babies and toddlers to play with my crazy babies and toddlers will often say to me (while our cheeky monkeys are hanging off of us) “OMG!!!! Why didn’t I know about these, I soooooooo needed one!!”.
So for all of you out there who aren’t too sure, let’s actually address what a Belly Wrap does shall we?
In the first six weeks following the birth of a baby, whether the birth is natural or by caesarean, a woman's body goes through a significant recovery and healing process. A Belly Wrap is a garment that you wear directly on your body; low down around your pelvic midriff area and ideally you would start wearing your wrap as soon as your baby is born (day 1/day 2 post birth) and ideally wear it all the time (only taking it off to shower or to sleep). A Belly Wrap effectively helps shrink and reposition your uterus after birth, as well as to reduce any bloating in your abdominal area caused by water retention. Belly Wraps are also used to provide additional support to your abdominal area (especially after a Caesarean) and core muscles to help improve posture and reduce strain in your lower back and to help heal any abdominal muscle separation. From a pure atheistic point of view, a Belly Wrap will give you an instant flat silhouette which is always a bonus too – no inappropriate comments like “when is your baby due??”.
The concept makes sense and the philosophy is simple... think about multiple pregnancies over multiple years, your body knows what to do and it does its best – but so many women are left well after their children rearing years have long gone with a front “pouch” that no amount of exercise or weight loss can ever shift, so using a belly wrap is an aid to help your body get back to how it was before and perhaps ever better!
So borrowing the words from good ol’ Molly Meldrum “do yourself a favour” and buy this one essential item for yourself – you will thank yourself in the years to come – I PROMISE!!
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