These days, there’s a lot of pressure on moms to get their pre-baby body back after having a baby. Postpartum girdles (or corsets) are one of the more controversial topics in the world of pregnancy and postpartum care. Celebrities like the Kardashians are promoting using corsets after giving birth and praising them as the reason they were able to get back into shape so quickly. But if something seems too good to be true, it often is. So, with the recent trend of postpartum girdles (or corset or waist trainers), lots of moms are wondering: are postpartum girdles bad for you? And what’s the difference between postpartum girdles vs. belly wraps?
The fact is: postpartum girdles are not just bad — they’re terrible.1 I am completely against using a girdle/corset/waist trainer postpartum, or any time, for that matter. But before we get into why you should avoid postpartum girdles, it’s important to clarify one thing . . .
Postpartum Belly Wrap vs. Postpartum Girdle, Corset, and Waist Trainer
It’s important that new moms don’t confuse the two. Some doctors or midwives may encourage the use of belly wraps for extra support after a C-section. There are different types of belly wraps or compression garments. The most common are made of soft material and close with a simple Velcro closure. However, others that are more corset-like and restricting and use clips or a lace-up method for closure aren’t recommended. Belly wraps or incision care garments can help aid in recovery, compress the C-section incision, or reduce swelling and decrease pain during the postpartum period.1,2 In the days following delivery, many women may benefit from a slight compression garment designed to help the uterus shrink, speed recovery, and decrease swelling and fluid retention. You only wear these short-term, and they’re not meant to cause any changes to your body that wouldn’t have happened on their own.3
However, postpartum girdles, waist trainers, or corsets are entirely different from belly wraps. Instead of improving recovery, these products are designed for extreme binding that’s meant to create an exaggerated hourglass figure.
Why Are Postpartum Girdles Bad for You?
All these products do is push your organs, muscles, and bones into a different placement so that — for the short amount of time you’re wearing the girdle — you can appear to have an hourglass figure. The problem is these girdles, corsets, and waist trainers do nothing to help retrain, rebuild, and restore your core. In fact, instead of strengthening your core (which is the true way to get a flat stomach), they actually make your core muscles WEAKER!
Tons of women are buying belly flatteners without knowing that these pieces leave you in worse shape than when you started. And many celebrities receive thousands of dollars to wear and promote these girdles, corsets, and waist trainers to their followers on social media. Although binders and bands have benefits like assisting lax muscles to join together so tissues can heal and approximate, helping to reduce swelling and pain, and providing support and reassurance, some risks are also associated with these products. These include:1
- Compressing your organs
- Compressing your bowels
- Decreasing circulation
- Increasing risks for blood clots
- Weakening core muscles
- Increasing indigestion
- Increasing constipation
- Increasing acid reflux
- Pelvic organ prolapse
- You’re only putting increased pressure on your diaphragm and pelvic floor and can increase discomfort, interrupt sleep, produce heat, and create the potential for rashes
Avoiding Postpartum Girdles
Please save your money, and don’t buy into this gimmick! You may like feeling that the girdle is “holding things in” when you wear it. But the problem is that you’re doing nothing to strengthen the muscles. You’re only putting increased pressure on your diaphragm and pelvic floor.6,7
Imagine squeezing a balloon in the middle. What’s inside of the balloon has to go somewhere. In the case of your stomach, when a girdle, corset, or waist trainer is squeezing you, what’s inside (aka your organs, bowels, etc.) has to go somewhere. So, it either goes upward (placing pressure on your diaphragm) or downward (placing pressure on your pelvic floor). This creates even more intra-abdominal pressure, which is the NUMBER ONE THING you want to AVOID to heal your diastasis recti! It also weakens your core and does nothing to engage your abdominal muscles.5,6,7
Want to know the real way to slim your waist? Proper nutrition and a strong core.4 That’s it! Your core muscles are your own natural corset. 😉
