My sister-in-law recently gave birth (twice in a few years), and I know she wore something called a "belly bra"...I'm not sure if it's the same thing as this, but it looks similar. She wore it for the same reasons girls with large chests where bras - it gave her support, which was more comfortable then flopping around while she walked, and it helped her fit into her clothes better, which was also comfortable (have you ever had a belly and noticed that it's almost impossible to find non-low-rider jeans, hence all jeans cut under the upper roll of your belly and are super uncomfortable?). I don't think the reasoning for her was aesthetic at all, and I think this product, while it can certainly be marketed as "flattering," has just as many "comfort" applications as aesthetic ones.

In general, it makes me think of a bra - it's primarily for support, so "pretty" bras or "flattering" bras or whatever may be draws for some people, but most girls, more than anything, just don't want to flop around while they walk.

I've never been pregnant, either, but I do think I'd rather buy one thing that allowed me to keep wearing my pre-pregnancy pants longer than having to buy a new wardrobe.

I'm not sure how I feel about it being marketed as basically a girdle to allow women back into pre-pregnancy clothing sooner, but since I have no experience, I don't really know the intricacies of what pregnancy does to women's bodies.

They extend the amount of time you can wear your pants without buying new ones. Shirts tend to hike up as your belly grows, so the bands can keep you from showing too much skin. They are also useful for breastfeeding women because you can pull up your shirt without exposing your belly. It's unfortunate they emphasize the beauty aspect because they are practical. I never bought one for my pregnancy, but many of my friends who have been pregnant recommended it to me.

I've been pregnant three times. They are useful for all the reasons listed above. They also take a bit of stress off the lower back.

When I was pregnant last year, I had a couple of these bands. As Maggie points out, they do offer some abdominal support, which is crucial later on. And being able to wear unbuttoned regular pants for a while saved me tons of cash - I didn't have to get 3 or 4 new pairs of special pants to wear for less than a year. (After hitting the 6-month mark, I just gave up on living and wore yoga pants instead.)

With regards to getting back into pre-pregnancy clothing, I'm fully aware and acknowledge that the phrasing is underwritten with the pressure to, like celebrities, get back to looking 'hawt' ASAP. But man, after a few months in the same couple of pairs of pants, I was so desperate to wear my old pants again (because it is possible to get real tired of wearing loungewear all the time) that, even unbuttoned, it was like being in heaven. I could look like other people again! Amazing! (Even though I was often covered in vomit.)

(Oh - and another practical post-partum use for these would be to support severed abdominal muscles after a c-section.)

In the spirit of full disclosure, I still have some maternity shirts and dresses that I wear with my regular pants, since they mostly just look like empire-waisted dresses or smocks - they don't scream 'maternity!' I'm pleased to get more use out of the mat clothes I did buy, even though I torched the yoga pants and the one pair of maternity jeans. I never wanted to see them again.

I had three of these for my 2nd pregnancy. They allowed me to wear my pre-pregnancy pants pretty much the whole time, and like someone else said, breastfeed without flashing skin and feeling cold after the baby was born. Is it problematic that women feel like they have to hide post-baby bellies when they nurse in public? Probably, but its hard enough to feel comfortable nursing out and about in this profoundly baby and breastfeeding unfriendly culture. The bellaband is a very useful product.

Also, the US is pretty unique in that belly binding during and after pregnancy is not a common practice. There are probably many benefits to doing so soon after birth and during pregnancy, especially if you are active and/or plan to have many children. Diastatis of the abdominal muscles is not just an aesthetic problem.

I just worked at a birth center in El Paso working mainly with women from Chih and Juarez. The incredibly tight, full body girdles they wore seemed to have many benefits. The bella band is not nearly as restrictive, but the idea is the same.

I've never been pregnant, but especially with that bit about allowing you to hide your jeans not being closed - I'd probably rather buy a simple thing like this than whole new maternity clothes. I can imagine for some women, being able to get back into their normal clothes wouldn't even be an issue of beauty regimes, but of just a return to normalcy. Sometimes very small things become very important when everything else has just gone unfamiliar.

Without actually *seeing* the rest of the box I can't judge it on the packaging.

It is a useful product, and has been around for at least five years. As others have commented, it does allow you to get by with far fewer maternity clothes, not just pants but shirts too. The emphasis on beauty is annoying, but you can hardly find anything marketed to women that doesn't emphasize beauty.

My oldest daughter is 4.5, and I had several of these in various colors when I was pregnant with her 5 years ago. It really is a great product. It relieves some of the strain on the lower back, holds up non-maternity jeans so you can wear them longer, holds up maternity jeans so you can wear them earlier (enabling you to have only two wardrobes - pre-pregnant and very-pregnant, instead of having to buy clothes for every shade of pregnancy in between), it covers your pregnant tummy if there's a gap between your shirt (maternity or otherwise) and your pants (giving a "layered" look that works and is cheaper than buying a bunch of new, longer tops), it covers your bare skin when worn under a t-shirt for breastfeeding, it helps make up for stretched muscles after birth - so that your saggy post-pregnancy tummy is less uncomfortable. I've also heard of women relying on them for comfort after a c-section, although I didn't have a c-section so I can't personally attest to that use.

Sure, you could *say* it's all about how it looks, but having used one, it was more about how everything *felt* for me. I honestly didn't care about how I looked (except for covering up my stomach when I nursed - that was more of a courtesy move, but it also made ME feel less exposed). Having a baby hanging out in front of you (or a pooch where the baby used to be, post-delivery) is uncomfortable. Every little bit of support helps. Also, when you're pregnant, tight clothing over your belly is extremely uncomfortable. I have to switch to maternity jeans long before I'm showing, because the feeling of being constrained over my midsection makes me nauseated. The belly band allows me to use my pre-pregnancy wardrobe longer.

I'd compare it to the difference between wearing a bra and going braless, except a few inches south. It's a good product. I mean, bras emphasize beauty, too, but that doesn't mean they're not useful.

You know, it just occurred to me - I've recently lost 25 pounds and my jeans are all falling off, but I don't want to go out and buy new pants until I'm down another size. Maybe I can re-tool my belly bands as an interim solution... Hmmmm... New product use?

Easy answer: this product helps you wear your normal clothes longer instead of having to spend tons of money on maternity clothes. I think its a good thing.

I agree with a lot of the posters above- I wore it to extend the life of my regular pants, for warmth in the winter, and after birth for support. It's silly that they emphasize the beauty aspect- I can totally agree that there is a particular aesthetic that pregnant women are supposed to adhere to- big belly, little everything else. It's funny because I happened not to gain a lot of weight- 20 lbs- throughout my pregnancy and constantly got complimented on it. I wasn't sure how to take that- I don't feel I really had a lot to do with how much weight I gained, I just tried to eat healthy and exercise. Other moms who did the same ended up gaining more weight than me. You really don't have a lot of control over how your body responds to each pregnancy.
In any case- getting back to the subject, it was useful to me. I didn't have to spend a lot of money on frumpy, expensive maternity clothes.

I think you're reading too much into this -- so many of my friends absolutely loved this product (or ones similar) because they help varying sizes of pants fit and overall made the pregnancy clothes more comfortable. In fact -- I bought one for my little sister recently and she keeps thanking me. It's extremely useful, and isn't about hiding a pregnant belly. When you're pregnant your weight and shape varies so much that it's really hard to know what size/kind of clothes will fit -- this helps that.

I didn't buy maternity pants because I didn't gain that much weight, and because I had a bella band. It held unzipped pants shut (and at certain stages of pregnancy, even if your pants CAN zip shut and aren't TIGHT, it's still uncomfortable) and also kept shirts from creeping up my bigger stomach, or not-quite-long-enough shirts from exposing my bare midsection.

Maybe mine was too big, but it didn't have any kind of supportive or binding affect on my actual stomach.

I think a BeBand is a lower cost version of a Bella Band.

It was a very useful product that saved me money. I never thought of as a beautifying thing, other than it kept me from looking foolish with undone pants and exposed stomach.

Yeah, I don't think this is so much a cosmetic thing as a way for women to wear their regular clothes longer and to give support to a pregnant stomach. It's totally functional.

In regards to fitting into pre-pregnancy pants sooner, it can take a few weeks after you've given birth before your belly goes back to your 'regular' size. So this is a practical item both during AND after pregnancy. It's also great for covering your belly while breastfeeding - both for the sake of others who might feel uncomfortable, and for your own confidence as you get used to your new post-baby body.

In regards to the beauty marketing, when you mostly just feel like a whale it's nice to do things to make you feel 'beautiful'. Pregnant bodies look beautiful, but you don't always feel that way when you are 8 1/2 months pregnant!

I think someone already said this, but much of the beauty marketing I think comes out of the trend of 'getting your pre-baby body back', but some days you just want to feel like something more than a mummy.

I didn't have one of these when I was pregnant but I kind of wish I had. There was definitely an awkward in-between time when I wasn't big enough for maternity pants but I couldn't close my regular pants. And then after giving birth, I was so totally sick of my maternity pants, and soon they were too big, anyway, but my old pants didn't fit. I guess I just went around looking like a slob for a while, both early in my pregnancy and after. It wasn't the end of the world, but it would have been nicer NOT to walk around with my pants visibly unbuttoned.

I did have this crazy elastic band thing that was specifically for supporting my enormous belly the last couple months of my pregnancy, because my back and pelvis hurt a lot. It did help, though I don't know if this belly band thing would work the same way. If so, that would be a plus.

Well rather than create an echo chmaber I'll just say that I agree with most of the commentors. It was a very functional part of my pregnancy wardrobe.

The carefully placed rings comment gave me a bit of a chuckle because I had to pry my rings from my sausage fingers (and I'm not the only one) before I even had a need for the band! Sorry, off topic.

The hospital gave me something like this after I had my twins (vaginally.) It really helped with recovery. This was in 2002, Massachusetts.

Note that in the first week after giving birth, it really feels like everything in the abdomen is fluid/unsettled/ready to head for the floor at any moment. The band helped with this feeling as well as the practical side of things -- the muscles that are extremely stretched due to the pregnancy and the ones that are exhausted from pushing are the muscles that help you stand or sit upright. Help in that department is wonderful.

It's pure genius to me. They did not have them when I was pregnant either time. I had to buy maternity clothing in my 2nd trimester. For support in my 3rd trimester I had to wear an actual back support belt that you'd wear to work. It was bulky and hot and I didn't need THAT much support. This would have been perfect. Definitely not a cosmetic piece. It gives you some options and alternatives.

I had my kid in the UK about 4 years ago – these were the rage among those of us in married student housing (where the pregnancies came in waves) – they were big in mainland Europe, someone had a sister with a hookup, and then they got handed around. We called them “belly bands” – I don’t know if that’s a trade name or not.

They’re actually INCREDIBLY useful – the covering unbuttoned too-tight jeans and holding up too-big maternity pants extends the wearability on both ends of the spectrum. They also mean you can wear regular shirts longer, without your pregnancy sticking out of the bottom of the shirt (not a great look for work).

Since we were passing them around like mix tapes (especially the non-neutral colors), I never saw any of the marketing there, so I don’t know if this is just for the US. I found I really needed the support for comfort, and these certainly don’t have “power-slimmmer” hold – more like a bathing-suit.

Here's a UK version marketed at tall women (we have to pay extra for long trousers, so it's a good place to aim):
http://www.tallgirls.co.uk/maternity/baby-bump-band.html

Seems to be marketed almost entirely on practicality (naturally with a bit of 'buy our other stuff' as well!).

I had two Bella Bands when I was pregnant 3 years ago. I recommend them to all my friends who are having babies. Loved them.

The first thing I thought was, "Oh, I could just make one of those with some stretchy fabric and a few well-placed seams."

I could see them as convenient because a new wardrobe can be /expensive/. Since most women (though I won't say all) expand during pregnancy if it's less expensive than a single pair of pants, I think it'd be worth it.

I dislike the whole emphasis on pretty, though. When have advertisers ever focused on 'practical' but instead went for 'pretty', 'time-saving' or something equally impractical?

This is hands down the *best* maternity thing that I bought. (I have a bellaband - not the target one). Coming from someone who is wearing one right now. And i think by "fit into your prepregnancy clothes sooner" it is the same as when it mentions extending them - you can wear yoru pants unbuttoned and fit into them. (unless you are one of the lucky few who can button their pre-pregnancy pants right after they give birth - I however am not). It doesn't suck in the belly really at all - it just covers up the fact that you are wearing your pants unbuttoned. When I was super-pregnant, it covered what I called "belly cleavage" where the bottom of your belly hangs out even if the maternity shirt fits. Plus it keeps up your maternity pants when your belly is pushing them down and you can't wear a belt. (I favored the low-rise pants). Plus I wear it so that if i am pulling my shirt up to nurse, i dont have to expose my whole stomach. Even if i'm at home - i get cold.

Its the first thing I mention to people who are expecting - go get one!

I think that the product can be a good thing, but the marketing is obviously somewhat shoddy. Heck, I'd like one and I'm not even pregnant - I'm currently losing a lot of weight, and this would help extend the usefulness of my wardrobe.

The ring that they had on that girls finger probably cost more than for the commerical itself. They made it very vibrant and noticable. They were either implying that she was married and just had a baby, or there was the possiblity that the girl was engaged because she had gotten knocked up. It all leads back to the fact that you should be attached to each other the rest of your life because you have a kid. Too bad not too many Americas take that advice and either have kids out of wedlock or get divorced with kids in their family. The main thing the ring is trying to show is that the only reason you should have a baby is that if you are really in love with your partner. So you should not only get your tummy back to normal but also get new values.