You had you baby (congrats!!) but you still look pregnant! What gives?!? Your postpartum care should include these 3 things to tighten & flatten your postpartum belly.
Now, how can you start to feel like yourself again and feel comfortable in your body again (both physically and mentally)? Don’t worry about superficial things like bouncing back to your pre-pregnancy weight until you are cleared for exercise by your doctor. Your body has just been through a major trauma and needs to repair and recover. Right now is the time to think more about your body’s function more than it’s appearance. That may sound confusing given that the title of this Blog post says “Tighten & Flatten your Postpartum Belly” but this has more to do with abdominal strength than how you will look in a bikini. Focus on the function and the appearance you are looking for will follow-suite.
Immediately after the birth of your baby you may feel bloated, hungry, tired, depressed, happy, anxious and achy; even all at the same time! You are on a hormonal roller coaster without a seat belt, Your life has no structure or predictability to speak of, you have no idea what day of the week it is or if it is daytime or nighttime. If you are like me, you need to wake your baby up every 2 hours to feed them so they can get back to their birth weight (which is awful, because when the baby is sleeping the last thing you want to do is wake them!)
Pregnancy was a journey in itself but now you are on another wild ride that will test your body’s limitations and your mental limitations. It is very easy for self-care to take a backseat, but if you are getting injured or not healing then it will make it infinitely harder to care for your baby and also to enjoy your baby! But not to worry! I am here to share five secrets to help you bounce back quickly that worked for me after both of my pregnancies (1 natural birth & 1 c-section).
Whether you had a C-Section or a natural vaginal birth, restoring and strengthening your core should be a priority in your postnatal care and here’s why:
Over the course of your pregnancy your abdominal muscles have stretched to their farthest extent and they are no longer elastic or flexible and they are severely weakened after being stretched this much. Think of a hair tie that gets all droopy and stretched out. But unlike a hair tie we can’t just throw out our abs and get a new set, so what can we do?? Well, aside from our appearance, abdominal and core muscles play a HUGE part in how our body moves and in preventing our bodies from injury.
Your core muscles are responsible for helping to distribute your weight evenly from the front to the back of the body. When your core muscles in the front of your body are weak, your lower back has to do all the heavy lifting. Also, if you thought your boobs were big during the pregnancy, just wait until a week or two after the baby is born! Your milk will come in and you will have two giant beach balls as hard as rocks that are 1 or even 2 cup sizes bigger than they were when you had the baby!!!
So now you will have even more weight disproportionately distributed at the front of your body from the sheer weight of your breasts not to mention the baby which you will spend A LOT of time carrying and holding and a 7-8 pound baby can start to feel real heavy real quick. If you don’t have a strong core, your lower back will end up taking the brunt by having to overexert itself to keep you upright and prevent you from falling forward from the offset of weight.
This will negatively affect your posture, which will only make lower back pain even worse. Also, your center of gravity has shifted so drastically that your balance is already a little wonky and your body needs time to get used to it. A weak core will only exacerbate poor balance since your abdominal muscles are crucial for proper balance. Think about when you do a one-legged yoga pose, you need to keep your core tight to hold your balance. Yet another reason to strengthen that core during postpartum care so that you can minimize injury or falling after having your baby.
You can see now why it is crucial to strengthen and repair your core during your postpartum care not just for aesthetic reasons (to tighten and flatten your belly), but to support your body to function optimally.
Here are the 3 best Postpartum care tips to help flatten & tighten your postpartum belly and restore your overall health!
1. Postpartum Compression Girdle
One of the BEST things you can have in your postpartum necessity arsenal is a postpartum compression girdle. You can get one for free or heavily discounted through your health insurance provider along with a breast pump as well) Below are the key benefits of using a compression girdle postpartum:
Reduces swelling
After you have the baby you still have a lot of excess fluid and blood that you are retaining and over the course of the next few weeks your body will slowly start to eliminate that, but the gentle compression of a compression girdle can help to speed that up. Also, don’t forget that not only were your abdominal muscles stretched to the max, but your uterus was as well. Including a compression garment in your postpartum care aids in helping your uterus shrink back down to it’s natural size (kind of like slowly letting the air out of a balloon). It also helps to reduce swelling in your ankles and feet that may have retained fluid throughout your pregnancy.
Provides abdominal support, alleviates back pain and improves posture
Okay, so all 3 of these things are intertwined & connected with one another which is why they are listed here as a single benefit. Your abdominal muscles are weakened and by giving a little added support there, you can help lighten the load for your lower back which helps improve your posture as well. After the birth of the baby, you start to realize just how much your abs did for you that you never even realized! Even just sitting up in bed is difficult at first and you don’t realize that your abdominal muscles are what help your body to even sit upright in a bed without slumping down.
Provides support & stabilizes joints and pelvic floor muscles which are weakened after childbirth
During the pregnancy your body produces a hormone called relaxin. This helps the ligaments and muscles to relax and loosen to allow for them to expand and stretch and prepare your body for delivery. Sounds like a good thing, right? On the contrary, this can actually lead to joint and ligament pain and increased risk of pain or injury (usually in lower back, knees, ankles and pelvis).
These muscles and joints become weaker and less elastic which make them easier to pull or strain (think of how you try to use that stretched out hair tie and then suddenly it snaps one day and breaks…) Without that elasticity there is no counter-pull to distribute the impact more evenly between several muscles and joints. (Think of it like your muscles playing tug-of-war and the stronger muscle is winning and pulling the loosened muscle face down into the mud)
Aids in diastasis recti recovery (when abdominal muscles separate)
Diastasis recti is a condition where the connective tissue between the rectus abdominis muscles stretch too thin causing the abdominal muscles separate down the mid-line of the stomach. When you have diastasis recti there is a visible gap between the two sides of the abdominal muscles and can also appear as a bulge along the point where the 2 sides of the abdomen are supposed to connect.
Things that can put you at a higher likelihood of getting diastasis recti are gaining an excess amount of weight during your pregnancy at a rapid rate, putting a lot of strain or excessive pressure on the abdominal muscles or lifting heavy objects and not having a good foundation of a strong core to help hold that bond between the muscles.
Promote faster healing after C-section
Gentle compression provides extra support and comfort around the incision site by stabilizing it. This can minimize any risk of the stitches popping or the incision opening up. It can also creates a barrier to protect the incision from anything rubbing on it
Mental Benefit
You can start to feel like your body is somewhat recognizable again. Compression garments hold everything together kind of like how shapewear does. It creates a nice, smooth foundation under your clothes and can get you into some of your pre-pregnancy clothes sooner
Note: waist trainers/corsets/SPANX and medical-grade postpartum compression garments are NOT the same! They are actually very different and provide very different benefits. Please consult with professional if you have any questions!
Important things to consider when choosing a compression garment:
- Make sure you pick the proper size. It should be tight without restricting your breathing or circulation
- If you had any complications at all, make sure to discuss wearing a compression garment with your OB or doctor. See if they suggest you wear one for your postpartum care and at what point after birth they think you can start to wear. Most people can start to wear them about 1 week after birth and can continue wearing them for about 4 months.
- Start out wearing it for shorter periods of time (just an hour or 2). Gradually increase the duration as your body gets used to it and gets stronger.
2. Breastfeed or pump if you can
I know you probably thought all of your contractions were behind you…sorry! But the good news, is that for your postpartum care the contractions are actually making your belly shrink! When you breastfeed (pumping works too) your body releases oxytocin. This causes the uterus to contract and return to it’s original size much faster and can also minimize postpartum bleeding.
Breastfeeding also burns calories which can help you to shed some of that baby weight as well. The final benefit is that it helps you to bond & connect with your baby. Also save money (formula is expensive!!!) I felt fortunate that during the pandemic I didn’t need formula which was out of stock everywhere.
3. Drink TONS of water!
Staying hydrated is IMPERATIVE for postpartum care and it can also aid in tightening and flattening your postpartum belly. It helps to reduce bloat (often you bloat when you are dehydrated because your body is trying to hold onto fluids (basically rationing them) to keep the body hydrated. Drinking more water lets the body know that it doesn’t need to hold onto so much fluid and that it can be eliminated from the body because it will continue to be replenished.
Staying hydrated also helps to improve your skin elasticity (which will help your saggy belly skin to firm back up) and it also helps to boost your metabolism, keeps you feeling full so you don’t overeat, keeps your milk supply up so you can continue to breastfeed or pump and it also expedites healing by helping nutrients to get where they need to in order to repair the body and keep it functioning at its best