{written by Vanilla Joy guest reviewer, Keri, who is not pictured below}
I am pregnant with my third child. And I’m really excited, but pregnancy for me is not a beautiful, glowing walk in the park. I’m jealous of women for whom pregnancy is just a big belly.
This pregnancy brought with it a worsening of something I developed when I was pregnant with my second: vulvar varicosities. I had never heard of such a thing until I was scouring the internet to figure out what the heck was wrong with me. On top of being rather unsightly, vulvar varicosities are very uncomfortable and grow to even be painful. Standing for long periods is out of the question. So is most exercise.
Of course I went to my ob-gyn and my midwife for a solution to my discomfort. Neither really had any answers, which was beyond frustrating. It is unconscionable to not provide a tried and tested solution to women tormented by vulvar varicosities.
So I went to the internet and found hundreds of women like myself who were suffering and had doctors tell them there wasn’t really a solution. I did find online several maternity girdles and support undergarments but most were outrageously expensive and looked like they wouldn’t give me the compression I needed in the right spot and still be wearable and quasi- comfortable.
But, there is light at the end of the tunnel – I found something that has made my second trimester bearable: it’s made by Underworks and is called a Maternity Pelvic and Back Support Longline Girdle with a Varicosity Relief Belt.
Besides providing support and compression in the right places, this is the most comfortable and wearable product I found in all my research, not to mention the most affordable.
The thick cotton belly panel comes all the way over my belly so I don’t look like a water balloon with a rubber-band around the middle. The legs and back are a sturdier fabric that doesn’t stretch much in order to provide tons of compression to the groin and thigh area. In the back there is a 6-inch tall piece of elastic that covers my lower back to provide support and in the front there is a 4-inch tall piece of soft elastic that stretches from hip to hip, gently lifting my preggo belly without pressing on my bladder.
Then there is the key to it all: the varicosity relief belt which is really just a wide strip of lightly padded fabric sewn behind the crotch area of the garment that is pulled between the legs and velcroed at the pubic bone area of the garment. It is adjustable and provides lots of compression which makes standing and walking around and doing all the things a mother has to do during the day much more comfortable.
I also really like the mid-thigh length of the girdle so there aren’t any unsightly VPLs.
I bought the large size since I’m pretty tall and was a size 8-10 before pregnancy. And I would recommend getting more than one since they need to be laundered just like underwear (but not dried). I would also consider getting additional girdles in a size larger that will fit later in the pregnancy when the belly and baby are bigger. I know I couldn’t go a single day without mine.
Underworks makes lots of maternity support garments to ease discomfort from the burgeoning belly. The products are constructed of quality materials and are very effective.
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