Moms Tell-All: 13 Pregnancy Products You Don’t Need
Stretch mark cream? Pregnancy pillows? Bands that make your pre-pregnancy clothes fit? We know you’re probably sure you need every single one of these, right? Well, maybe not. We asked moms to dish what the maternity items they bought but then never used.
“I found the band that’s supposed to make my pre-pregnancy pants fit to be pretty useless. I got a few early on for the ‘in-between’ stage (regular pants were too tight, maternity pants were too big) but my pants would be falling down and you could clearly tell that my jeans weren’t buttoned because the material was so thin. I know a lot of people swear by them, so maybe it just depends on the person, but it definitely wasn’t for me.” — Stacey R.
“I never used the band I bought to make my pre-pregnancy bottoms fit because I found it only worked as long as I didn’t move too much. Looking back, I should’ve just called it what it was and got maternity pants and jeans that fit.” — Jessica B.
“I went out and bought these name brand, high-end maternity pants thinking that they’d be better than the pairs you typically find at department stores. Turns out the ‘cheaper’ brands fit better and were more comfortable than the name brand were.” - Maria K.
“Have you ever heard of those apps that record baby kicking and upload them to your social sites? Probably not, right? Well I am that .001 percent that believed the hype and bought a pair. Every time baby kicks, it sends a status update to my social media accounts. At first I thought it was a cute idea but then it just got annoying. My friends did not need to know every time my daughter was kicking me! And the worst part was that I couldn’t figure out how to deactivate it. It was so embarrassing!” — Rebecca K.
“This is so embarrassing, but I actually went out a bought these ‘Morning Chicness Bags’ because I was having terrible morning sickness during my first and second trimesters. I don’t know why, but I guess I thought buying these would make me feel a little more glamorous every time I pulled over to puke on my way to work. They didn’t cost a fortune, thankfully, but still, why did I need them? I didn’t. I ended up using them as my toddler’s lunchboxes. She loved them! Haha.” — Renee T.
“My father-in-law got me this weird contraption that you put on under your clothes and it plays music for your baby all throughout the day. You can sync it with your iPod or your iPad so that you and baby are listening along to the same tunes. I was mortified that he got it and too embarrassed to ask him for the receipt to send it back. Naturally, it’s still sitting in our closet, in the box, never been used.” — Meghan R.
“I work from home and had read a report that radiation from your iPad, computer and iPhone could be really damaging to baby, so I bought a blanket meant to protect baby from the effects. I never used it. Shortly after it shipped, my husband and I went out and redid our home office, so I really had no need for this ridiculously expensive blanket anymore because I was using the new desk we purchased. The good news is our dog loves to lay on top of it!” — Sarah C.
“I thought my pregnancy pillow was pretty useless. I move around in my sleep a lot and it just didn’t work. Plus, who wants to get back into position after every bathroom trip?” — Lauren B.
“I tried so many different kinds of stretch mark cream during my pregnancy, including special pregnancy-formulated stretch mark oil. They didn’t work for me at all. And my partner hated the smell.” — Kelly G.
“My best friend delivered her baby five months before I did, so when she was going through her maternity products, she gave me the a stretch mark cream she’d used. She went on and on about it, so I figured I’d give it a try. What a waste! It didn’t work.” — Jennifer O.
“I should’ve known better than to go out and buy all these specialty maternity beauty products when I was expecting. I mean, why couldn’t I just continue using the products I’d always used on my skin? Instead, I spent a small fortune on this dark spot-reducing cream. I used it once and didn’t really love it, so I went back to using Cocoa Butter. It’s still sitting in my drawer.” — Jacqueline S.
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