Modernizing an ancient tradition

Childbirth can be a traumatic experience for a woman's body. Now an innovative combination of fashion and technology is breathing new life into an ancient tradition that offers support for improved posture, circulation and muscle recovery for postpartum women.

University of Delaware graduate student Casey Tyler, a master's student in fashion and apparel studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, combined their experience in research and design with inspiration from spacesuit engineering to create a flexible, easy to use and sustainable garment called a knotted belly bind™.

The project came to Tyler via UD's Wearable Innovation Lab. Led by Adriana Gorea, assistant professor and principal investigator, the lab focuses on inclusive, user-centric functional apparel design, and often seeks to address community needs.

For doula Brittany Mason, the fashion challenge was clear: "How do you modernize a tradition and technique that we know is so beneficial, to work in a society where women have to go right back to work after having a baby?"

Belly binding has been used by postpartum women across cultures for centuries. Traditional methods require at least two people to wrap a long length of fabric - as long as 36 feet - in strips around the body to make a series of knots that are stacked in the front of the torso, in a method similar to lacing a shoe. The binds compress the abdominal muscles and support the torso and the pelvic floor, helping the body heal.

The technique has gotten lost in today's fast-paced society as wrapping and tying the fabric is complicated, time consuming and can't be done by the mother alone.

"That was the challenge," said Mason, co-founder of This is Spacewear, alongside Amanda Deng, a spacesuit designer at ILC Dover.

Deng's work with spacesuits shares the same core design philosophy as the belly bind: supporting biomechanics, physiology and recovery through intentional, body-centered design.

Naturally, the duo sought out UD.