How To Belly Wrap with a Woven Wrap
Fellow pregnant ladies, here’s a blog post specially for you! :-) If you already have or are planning to soon purchase your first woven wrap, stretchy wrap, or ringsling , you don’t actually have to wait until baby arrives before you can use it! How awesome is that?
There are a few things you can use your wrap for right now to start softening it up and practice using it, but perhaps my favourite is belly wrapping!
What is belly wrapping?
Traditionally, belly wrapping has been practiced many years in many parts of the world, including Spain, the Philippines, Latin America, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. It is a practice that (prior to the rapid spread of this kind of information through the internet) was mainly handed down from mothers and midwives.
I get the impression that postpartum belly wrapping or binding is a more commonly known practice to help everything stabilise and go back into place. However, prenatal belly wrapping, or belly wrapping during pregnancy can be just as beneficial.
Belly wrapping with a wrap involves tying the wrap over your pregnant belly, spreading the fabric and tightening in all the right places to support your belly.
What are the benefits of belly wrapping?
Some of the following benefits have been reported by mamas who have tried belly wrapping (myself included!):
- Supporting instability in your hip joints due to extra relaxin hormones
- Help to support the extra weight (often 10-20kg) through your core
- Feel more balanced
- Reduce abdominal separation
- Reduce round ligament pain
- Reduce pubic bone pain
- Help with better posture when sitting/standing
- Help baby to get into a better position for labour
- Reduce strain on your back
- Getting comfortable with using a sling or wrap before baby arrives
- Feeling good about yourself – pretty wraps and nice feeling fabric can really brighten the day!
Special cautions for belly wrapping
Always seek medical advice and listen to your doctor and midwife. Every pregnancy and body is different, so belly wrapping may not be right for you. Be cautious if you try belly wrapping and make sure…
- You don’t restrict your baby’s movement
- You don’t restrict the growth of your baby/body
How to do belly wrapping…
There are a few different techniques and tutorials out there. I’d definitely encourage you to try some different options to see what is most comfortable for you. With a woven wrap you can do a similar style to a Front Wrap Cross Carry and comfortably spread it over your belly. You can also do a sweetheart finish:
With a stretchy wrap you do a similar concept to a Woven Wrap but the material is nice and stretchy :) And a ringsling is really quick and easy:
Honestly though, you can make this one up. Baby is safely inside your belly (they’re not going to fall out ;-)) so as long as you don’t go too tight or cause discomfort, you’re good to go! Try wrapping wherever you need support, and tie off once you run out of wrap!
Over to you now… have you tried belly wrapping during pregnancy? If so, what benefits did you find and what techniques did you use? There’s actually not a lot of information available online about this just yet (trust me – I looked!) so any info you can contribute is likely to be very valuable to future mamas who go searching.
Happy belly wrapping!
X
P.S. Enjoyed this article? Please feel free to share it or save for future reference! :)
P.P.S. If looking for a woven or stretchy wrap to start your babywearing/belly wrapping journey, check out our shop – we have a bunch in stock, all with AfterPay!
Copyright Brooke Maree © 2019
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