How To Choose The Best Maternity Support Belt For You
A maternity belt offers support to your belly, pelvis and low back. These can be really helpful, especially as you enter the third trimester and may start to feel more uncomfortable moving around. The goal is that these support belts allow you to keep moving well while giving you a little extra stability as your body and posture continues to change. Some people experience lower back pain, especially after standing on their feet all day. Others may have round ligament pain, pubic bone pain or feel heaviness in their pelvis. There are many different pregnancy support bands on the market. How do you know which one is right for you? I put a few to the test during my pregnancy and will let you know which ones worked for me and which ones did not.
Serola Belt
The serola belt is designed to give you support around your SI joints and low back. As your pelvis begins shifting and changing during pregnancy, we often lose stability from our ligaments and muscles that we typically rely on for that support. The serola belt is a nice way to give our pelvis some extra reinforcement during pregnancy. The serola belt has minimal give and is only three inches thick. It can easily be worn under or over clothing. For me, during pregnancy, the rigidity and narrow band felt less comfortable during my third trimester. However, I often recommend this belt to patients with pubic symphysis dysfunction or SI joint pain who find it to be very beneficial for pain relief.
Gabrialla Maternity Support Belt
This support belt is designed to cradle your belly and ease pressure and pain from your low back or pelvis. It also gives you extra support with all your daily movements including walking, running or exercise. The Gabrialla band gives moderate compression to help take off the stress from your low back, especially as your center of mass shifts forward and your lower back starts to have a more exaggerated arch. I felt like this band gave me the most support for my low back and helped with my posture throughout the day. I especially enjoyed wearing it on days where I was working in the clinic and knew I would be standing on my feet for a long period of time.
Cabea Sport Belly Support Band
The Cabea Sport band was my favorite one that I tested out. I felt like it gave the right amount of support but was not too restrictive. It also fit nicely over my leggings and allowed me to continue to work out with ease. I was even able to participate in a Girls on the Run 5k without back or pelvic pain! Towards the end of my pregnancy I started to have some pubic symphysis pain and the cabea sport band gave me flexibility of movement while still providing the necessary support around my pelvis.
V2 Supporter Maternity Band
I did not actually test this band out during pregnancy, but it is my go to recommendation for anyone experiencing pelvic pressure or pain, prolapse symptoms like heaviness in the pelvis or discomfort from vulvar varicosities. While it is not the most attractive band, I tell my patients it is like wearing a jock strap for your pelvis. The V2 Supporter gives extra support to your perineum and takes a little pressure off your pelvic floor muscles that are usually doing all the work.
These are just a few of our favorite support bands to recommend during pregnancy. You can find some of our other product recommendations for pregnancy and postpartum recovery here. Let us know what other questions you have about maternity support belts during pregnancy. You can schedule a discovery call with one of our pelvic floor PTs to learn more.
