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Original advice 3rd September, Updated 14th of November (update at end of original piece)
I have been doing a few web searches to find out if I can keep my belly button piecing during the pregnancy and thought I would share what I have found. I have included
the list of websites I used to find this information.
Apparently some women manage to keep their existing belly bar in but in some cases as the belly grows the bar can protrude and be more likely to catch on things. Other websites have said that you have to take it out at about 5 or 6 months.
There is the option of removing the jewellery but passing the bar through regularly to ensure the piercing remains.
Some sites recommend that if you have new piecing you let it heal and then consider re-piercing after the birth. Piercing during pregnancy is not recommended at any of the sites I visited.
The birth.com website mentioned that a lady had successfully maintained her piercing by using fishing line. On one site I found a post from a lady who had kept hers open using doubled up dental floss. Her piercing was 10 years old.
There are now some newer flexible products being used to make bananabells and barbells from that the makers claim are suitable for pregnancy.
- PTFE polytetraflouroethylene
- BioFlex
- Bioplast
Accessing Bioflex may be more difficult. I live in a small country town two hours from Perth. At a piercing shop in Bunbuy (40 minute drive from home) I can get a PTFE barbell but have not mananged to source bioflex locally, just over the internet. I like to see what I am buying if I am not familiar with it.
The bioflex Australian website http://www.bioflex.com.au/
claims that ptfe / teflon is not actually made for medical use and that Teflon is being phased out due to its “potential cancer causing and reproductive side effects”. Unfortunately their link to read more is not working.
What's the difference between BioFlex banana and PTFE ?
According to
http://www.body-piercing-jewellery.com/acatalog/belly_button_ring_bananas_jewellery.html
“BioFlex is coming already formed with a bent shaft, and you only have to screw-on a top ball. The advantage of this is that the BioFlex banana will sit straight into your navel, while with PTFE, you have to give it a bend in the right direction from time to time, and the lower jewelled ball has tendency to face on the side and need regularilry to be put right.”
Sites used to compile this information (in addition to sites already mentioned)
http://www.birth.com.au/class.asp?class=67&page=28
http://www.pregnancy-info.net/QA/answers-Belly_Button_Piercing___/
- lots of different answers from people about keeping a bb piercing during pregnancy.
UPDATE - 33 WEEKS PREGNANT, 14/11/06.
I managed to buy a ptfe bar in Bunbury. Unfortunately I had to buy each bit separately because the people in the shop didn't bother to tell me on the phone that they did not have it in stock. The bar (an ugly black piece of plastic cost me $8 Australian). I was told that I would be able to use my own silver balls from my other belly bars on it. That was not the case so another 60km drive to Bunbury to buy theirs. All up it ended up costing me $22 plus petrol for a second 120km trip.
As I had left my other belly bar in for too long and it had got a little short my piercing got a little irritated and infected so I had a few days with no bar and daily Betadine solution before I put in the new bar.
The new bar is very flexible. I have been wearing it for several weeks now. At the moment my belly button looks as if it is about to pop. The ptfe bar looks as if it will be flexible to allow that to happen.
(September 2006) (
