Should You Wear an Abdominal Binder Postpartum?

This question and subsequent blog post was inspired by a lovely walk and conversation I had this week with a dear friend who recently had her 2nd baby. As with most things, it depends. Keep reading for some guidance on helping you decide if wearing an abdominal binder might be right for you.

First, what is an abdominal binder? An abdominal binder is a stretchy band that is typically about 12-14" wide with Velcro on one end. This is something that you can get from the hospital if that is where you deliver or even on Amazon.

An abdominal binder in this sense, will provide a moderate amount of compression, this is different than a waist trainer (read on as to why this is important). And, for the sake of this blog, I will be focusing on strictly talking about guidance on wearing an abdominal binder and acknowledge this is different than the practice of belly binding. For more information on belly binding, I would direct you to a provider that does this practice and can help provide accurate information.

Let’s first talk through the potential benefits of wearing an abdominal binder after delivery. The biggest benefit, is that it can help give external support to the abdominals while they are healing which therefore can give the wearer a feeling of increased stability. Wearing the binder and getting this external support can help ease getting in/out of bed and also increase overall activity tolerance in those initial postpartum days.

This increased support can also help mitigate some pain/discomfort that comes with muscles getting reacquainted with the feeling that they need to show up differently now that the baby is born.

An abdominal binder can also help with pain relief post c-section scar by providing gentle compression and support to your incision. Wearing the binder can provide a layer of fabric between your incision and clothing or even seat belts in the car, helping the body feel a bit more protected.

Now for some food for thought on potential downsides.

First, wear time. Initially, you may find it helpful to wear the binder the majority of the day, which is fine, but as soon as you feel able, I would recommend weaning down the wear time. This is because our body is extremely smart and can be lazy. What do I mean by this? If you start to wear the binder around the clock and continue this for a prolonged period of time, your abdominal muscles get reallll comfy that something else (the binder) is doing their work for them and they can actually get weaker/stay weaker.

Next up, wear position. An abdominal binder is meant to be worn around the abdominals (sounds easy enough) but sometimes the binder is too wide for the person (someone maybe with a shorter torso) and it may ride up throughout the day. Ideally, you want the binder to remain lower and around the abdominals and as minimal around the rib cage as possible. If the binder is worn too high and tight around the ribs, this can impact your ribs abilities to expand and contract which then can impede how the pelvic floor shows up for you.

Final consideration, tightness. As stated above, you want the abdominal binder to provide moderate compression in order to gain some of the benefits of wearing it. Just ensure that you are able to breathe comfortably with full inhales/exhales and that you don’t feel increased pressure down towards your pelvic floor. If the abdominal binder is overly tightened, this can create restriction in the middle of your core which then will direct pressure either up or down. (Imagine as if you are squeezing a tube of toothpaste in the middle). Wearing the abdominal binder too tightly could contribute to increased pelvic floor dysfunction. This is why I mentioned the difference between an abdominal binder and waist trainers. Waist trainers goal is to sit extremely snug around the torso which is probably the last thing your body needs immediately postpartum.

There are alternative options on the market as well if interested. Several companies out there have started creating postpartum “bloomers” which are designed to give support and compression from the pelvic floor up to the abdominals. You may consider this type of support instead of the abdominal binder but this is up to you. If interested in looking into this type of support more, one option is baobei.

In summary, abdominal binders can be great and very helpful but be considerate of how much you are wearing it, how tight it is, and checking in you aren’t feeling additional pressure down onto your pelvic floor.

If you found this post helpful, please comment and share with others as I love educating the community!

Keep following along for tips, trick, and pelvic floor tidbits.