Belly Bandit Review

Let’s face it. Pregnancy takes a toll on a woman’s body. It’s 150% worth it, but that’s a fact. Our hips, belly, skin, boobs get all stretched out and don’t always go back to the way they were before. Again, totally worth it (I MUST stress that!), but I feel like the postpartum body is one that takes a little bit of getting used to. Things get…flabby. Especially during the first six weeks. Even the skinniest girl has that pooch belly. And I think it’s fair to say we are all looking to get back into our pre-pregnancy jeans, like, ASAP.

Enter….the Belly Bandit.

Belly Bandit is the first-ever postpartum compression garment for your belly. It uses medical-grade pressure to compress the stomach, waist, and hips back to their pre-pregnancy size (or close to it!). Here’s some science behind it: the female body produces a hormone, called relaxin, during pregnancy which allows the joints and ligaments to loosen to prepare for baby’s arrival. This hormone is still floatin’ around your body during the first 6-8 weeks postpartum. This naturally added flexibility in combination with the compression from the Belly Bandit helps shrink the postpartum body that much quicker. Woo! That little anatomy and physiology lesson just brought me back to my nursing school days 😉

I contacted Belly Bandit to inquire about doing a review to see what all the fuss was about…and let’s face it, I would love to be able to button my pants again 😉 (I should add here that I am small-framed, I worked out for years pre-pregnancy and for 28 weeks during my pregnancy before I was put on modified bed rest. I consider myself to be in pretty good shape, but seeing as this was my first baby, there was no way of knowing how my body would bounce back. I was not working out during my use of the Belly Bandit.)

Here’s the Belly Bandit on:

I definitely didn’t wear the Belly Bandit as long as the company recommends. I typically wore it around the house (but took it off while I was nursing), and if I was wearing clothing that showed my belly a little more than I would like…for only a few weeks. During this time, I was only wearing the Belly Bandit and not working out. One week postpartum I was still using a hair-tie to close my pants and shorts. By week two, I was back down to my pre-pregnancy weight. By week four, I was able to close my pants properly, but still had some pooch hanging over. By week six, I felt “normal” again.

Here’s a comparison photo for you from the day before I went into labor, and then six weeks after delivery (don’t mind the iPhone photos!):

Overall I felt the concept of Belly Bandit is a good one for women who are looking to shrink back down quickly. ESPECIALLY to help fit back into those pre-pregnancy clothes. I can only speak for myself here, but I shrunk back down faster than I expected even though I didn’t wear the Belly Bandit for a full six weeks!

What do you think? Would you give the Belly Bandit a try?