Seriously, the indignities of pregnancy are too numerous to name. But I experienced a new one this time around that even I didn’t see coming.

I had to buy a maternity support belt.

{Seriously.}

The product description doesn’t help the sexy factor, which is woeful at this point of pregnancy anyway, but it’s an embarrassing state when you need a contraption to keep your belly in the air.

This is how I’m carrying. You can laugh, gasp, or probably more appropriate, pity me.

You can only imagine I have to put my hands under my belly so I can walk at an expedient pace (i.e. faster than an 80 year old), and when I had my pregnancy checkup with a male doctor, he took one look at me and recommended the maternity support belt. (You know you’ve hit an all time belly low when a male doctor thinks your belly is so big you need velcro and a stretchy band to hold the sucker up.)

I tweeted about it and headed over to a local retailer in the Boston area (though the company has an online registry, shop and webinars for everyone across the country.) Isis Parenting didn’t laugh. I guess because clients come in for devices that are more, let’s just say, interesting contraptions than my needs. Someone was there to help me figure out which one was best for what I needed, was the most comfortable, and showed me how to put it on. (I kept thinking about the part in the book, “Are you There God its Me Margaret.“)

My 2.5 year old was with me, however, and he expressed extreme displeasure over the thing. The words “No Mama, No Mama” kept ringing out in the store as I put the belt on (way to be incognito.) I’m sure if my husband saw it on me too, he would probably be uttering a similar statement. Which is why I have been getting dress in the dark. (That is probably a whole other post.)

I waddled out of the store 10 minutes later with the maternity support belt on under my clothes. I wasn’t quite convinced this thing would be any good and felt rather silly that I forked over $45 dollars for something I would only be wearing for 5 weeks. Yet, the true test came the next day when I walked around the neighborhood with my toddler; no need to support my belly with my hands. Oh, and that sciatica in my hip that I’ve had the past two months? Gone.

So while I can only hope no one ever sees me in this thing, it has been a pretty sweet device. If you end up being in a similar situation, just get one. Forget the silliness factor, and think of your comfort. (Even if you deny possession of it to family and friends.)