Purple Laurel - Guest Post - Fit for motherhood

I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to get on the blog yesterday, but that’s okay I was enjoying a wonderful day with my family and I hope you were able to do the same. A Thanksgiving filled with lots of love is what this season is all about.

I’m am so excited to welcome, Stephanie Miles, owner of Purple Laurel to the blog today. Purple Laurel is the place to go for any moms or moms-to-be may essentials. They have everything from postpartum wraps to nursing bras to shapewear. As many of you know I am a huge advocate of postpartum belly wraps, I wore one after each of my pregnancies and I truly believe it’s one of the things that helped me get my body back. Yes, diet and exercise are still the most important, but I truly believe this was another key component. Not only does it help you feel better immediately as it holds in your tummy and protects your backs, but there are so many more benefits to postpartum belly wrapping. Stephanie is so kind to share them with all of us today.

I wore a postpartum belly wrap for at least 12 hours a day everyday for about 6 weeks.

This picture is 4 weeks after having McKayla and McKenzie.

5 Surprising Facts About Postpartum Belly Wraps

By Stephanie Miles, owner of Purple Laurel

Recovering from childbirth is hard work, both physically and emotionally. Despite what celebrity magazines might have you think, there is no “secret” to bouncing back after pregnancy. However, there are things that we can all do to start feeling better about ourselves that go beyond eating healthy and exercising regularly.

Postpartum belly wraps are not a miracle cure, and as Renee has detailed in some fantastic posts on the topic, they won’t give anyone six-pack abs overnight. But, I’ve seen many women experience significant physical benefits from wearing their wraps regularly for the first six to eight weeks after giving birth.

Despite how common abdominal wrapping and binding has become after pregnancy, there are still some major misconceptions about the practice—chief among them, that you’ll lose weight instantly from wearing a belly wrap. Here are five of the most surprising facts I’ve learned about postpartum belly wrapping from physicians, researchers, and our customers at Purple Laurel who told me about their experiences.

The concept isn’t new. New mothers have been wearing compression garments, like binders, wraps, corsets, and girdles, to pull in their bellies after childbirth for centuries, but the practice didn’t seem to catch on in mainstream American culture until celebrities like Jessica Alba started talking about their own experiences. Ancient belly binding often involved a doula, who would wrap the postpartum woman with strips of special cloth during an all-day ceremony. Thankfully, high-tech fabrics and elastics have made belly wrapping a much easier process for women these days.
All wraps are not created equal. Medical-grade compression wraps provide very different results than the DIY wraps some women make with Saran wrap, or garments that are designed with cheap materials and manufactured overseas. The best abdominal wraps work through tight compression in the same way that compression garments aid in recovery after tough workouts or long runs. In an interview, New York OB/GYN Dr. Iffath Hoskins explained that medical-grade abdominal wraps can help “lax abdominal muscles return to their previous shape by pulling the muscles and skin closer together, which could help get those jeans buttoned a little sooner.”
Change doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve heard from midwives who said more and more patients are bringing up the topic of belly binding, with the expectation that high-quality wraps will improve their abdominal muscle tone virtually overnight. Unfortunately, miracle cures are rarely a reality. For the greatest chance of real change, physicians recommend that healthy women wear wraps as soon as possible after delivery. During this time, external binders will support the abdominal muscles while they’re healing. That knitting together of the abdominal muscles is what makes it look like weight loss has occurred, and it’s the magic behind many of the before-and-after pictures you’ve probably seen posted on social media.
More isn’t always better. As a general rule of thumb, most healthy women can begin wearing their wraps immediately after birth. But there isn’t necessarily a correlation between the number of hours a day a woman wears her wrap, or the number of weeks she wears it, and the amount her waist and hips will shrink. Although celebrities have claimed to wear their wraps 24/7, most physicians recommend wearing them only during the waking hours or when you’re feeling the most active. Periodically adjusting the tightness is important, as well. The postpartum belly wraps we sell at Purple Laurel can easily be adjusted for tightness. Physicians recommend that women not wear wraps so tightly that they can’t breathe deeply while they’re on.
Psychology and physiology go hand-in-hand. Postpartum belly wrapping provides just as many psychological benefits as it does physiological. That’s one of the reasons why even the most skeptical physicians still recommend that patients who are curious give belly wrapping a try. Psychological benefits can lead to physiological benefits, as well, because women who feel more self-confident will usually return exercise sooner. With the belly supported, and post-pregnancy backaches minimized, it’s easier for new mothers to return to regular activity after birth. Even basic tasks, like bending down to pick your baby up off the changing table, are easier when you’re wearing a support and compression garment.