US20130072087A1

US20130072087A1 - Adjustable protective maternity belt

Info

Publication number: US20130072087A1
Application number: US13/239,164
Authority: US
Inventors: William Chen
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2011-09-21
Filing date: 2011-09-21
Publication date: 2013-03-21

Abstract

An adjustable protective maternity belt includes a protective belt, a waist protection board and at least one adjustment belt. The protective belt has two fastening straps. The adjustment belts are connected with the fastening straps. The waist protection board is connected with the fastening strap of the protective belt and also with the adjustment belts which are respectively positioned on the lower and upper belly of the pregnant woman.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an adjustable protective maternity belt, and more particularly to a maternity belt, which can provide waist protection and decreased back soreness for a pregnant woman. Moreover, the maternity belt can minimize the risk of humpback of the pregnant woman.
2. Description of the Related Art
During pregnancy, a pregnant woman often suffers waist soreness and backache. It is caused by the change of the body attitude of the pregnant woman. At the middle stage or later stage of pregnancy, a pregnant woman often feels soreness of the waist, pain over the back due to deformation of the lumbar, humpback and low fetal positioning, which may also lead to premature birth.
A conventional maternity belt is able to relieve the belly of a pregnant woman from gravity load so as to prevent the pregnant woman's body from unnaturally tilting backward. This can minimize the waist soreness and backache of the pregnant woman. In order to relieve the symptom of waist soreness and avoid abnormal fetal position and uterine prolapse, a doctor will generally suggest that a pregnant woman starts to use a maternity belt at about middle stage of pregnancy according to personal requirements.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional maternity belt 1, which includes a holding/supporting section 10, a first fastening strap 11 and a second fastening strap 12. The holding/supporting section 10 has a wider main body. The first fastening strap 11 is sewn on one side of the holding/supporting section 10 and extends thereof. A fluffy loop tape 13 is sewn on outer face of the fastening strap 11. A hook tape 14 is sewn on inner face of a free end of the second fastening strap 12. Referring to FIG. 2, in use of the conventional maternity belt 1, the holding/supporting section 10 is first positioned on the lower belly of a pregnant woman. Then the first and second fastening straps 11, 12 are wound over two sides the waist of the pregnant woman to the back thereof. Then the hook tape 14 of the second fastening strap 12 is stuck to the loop tape 13 of the first fastening strap 11 to achieve a belly holding/supporting effect.
The conventional maternity belt can simply provide belly holding/supporting effect for a pregnant woman with limited waist support design. Therefore, a pregnant woman still needs to use her waist and back as forces of support for her belly. As a result, the load on the waist of the pregnant woman is increased. Moreover, the conventional maternity belt has a fixed length. However, it is known that the belly of a pregnant woman will become bigger from early pregnancy to late pregnancy stage. The length of the maternity belt fastening straps may be either too long or too short for a pregnant woman to wear. Also, the conventional maternity belt does not have enough back support to alleviate the back pain that frequently happened during the post-partum period as a result of bad posture during the neonatal care. Therefore, the pregnant woman cannot conveniently wear the conventional maternity belt or it may even be impossible to wear.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide an adjustable protective maternity belt. The maternity belt is able to hold and support the belly of a pregnant women. The position and tightness of the adjustment belts can be adjusted according to the change in the size of the pregnant women's belly. For pregnant woman in their second or third trimester or even during the post-partum stage, the waist protection board is applied to the back of the pregnant woman and connected with the adjustment belts and protective belt respectively. The adjustment belts and the protective belt were then positioned on the upper and lower belly of the pregnant woman. Accordingly, the holding and support force of the protective belt is enhanced to share the load on the lumbar area of the pregnant woman. Therefore, the pregnant woman can wear the maternity belt more comfortably to relieve the waist soreness and achieve a waist and back protection effect. Moreover, the maternity belt can also minimize the risk of humpback for pregnant woman.
To achieve the above mentioned functions, the adjustable protective maternity belt of the present invention includes a protective belt, a waist protection board and at least one adjustment belt. The protective belt has a wider protective cover body and two narrower fastening straps integrally extending from two sides of the protective cover body. Fastener members are disposed on inner faces of free ends of the fastening straps. The wider protective cover body of the protective belt serves to hold and support the lower belly of a pregnant woman. The adjustment belts are connected with the fastening straps and wound over two sides of the waist and around the back of the pregnant woman and attached to the opposite side of the protective belt. The maternity belt can be applied to a second or third trimester pregnant woman to provide a belly holding/supporting effect. The waist protection board is also applicable during the latter pregnancy stage or the postpartum period as needed. The waist protection board includes a substrate enclosed in a fabric layer, multiple supporting members are disposed on the substrate and the connection tapes are disposed on the outer face of the substrate as well. The supporting members serve to support the lower back of the pregnant woman. The fastening straps of the protective belt are wound over two sides of the waist of the pregnant woman to connect with the connection tapes of the waist protection board. In this case, the protective cover body and the waist protection board are respectively positioned on the belly and the back of the pregnant woman. The adjustment belts are connected with the connection tapes of the waist protection board and wound over two sides of the waist of the pregnant woman to the upper belly of the pregnant woman and connected with each other. Under such circumstance, the belly holding/supporting force of the protective belt is enhanced and the pregnant woman can more comfortably wear the maternity belt to relieve the waist and back soreness.
The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings, wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional maternity belt;

FIG. 2 shows that a pregnant woman wears the conventional maternity belt;

FIG. 3 is a perspective exploded view of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective exploded view of the protective belt and adjustment belts of the present invention;

FIG. 5 shows that the present invention being applied on a pregnant woman with a change in her belly size as pregnancy progress;

FIG. 6 shows that the adjustment belts are connected to each other;

FIG. 7 shows that a pregnant women with increased in belly size wearing the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows that the adjustment belts are connected to the waist protection board;

FIG. 9 is a view according to FIG. 8, showing that the location where the adjustment belts are connected to the waist protection board and may be adjusted as necessary;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the waist protection board of a second embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the waist protection board of a third embodiment of the present invention, in which the waist protection board has elongated connection straps.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIG. 3. According to the first embodiment, the adjustable protective maternity belt of the present invention includes a protective belt 2, at least one adjustment belt 3 (two in the drawings) and a waist protection board 4.
The protective belt 2 has a wider protective cover body 20 and two narrower fastening straps 21, 22 integrally extending from two sides of the protective cover body 20. The protective cover body 20 and the fastening straps 21, 22 can be integrally made from one piece of cloth by tailoring. Fastener members are disposed on inner surfaces of free ends of the fastening straps 21, 22. The fastener members can be a hook, loop fasteners, snap fasteners or buttons. In this embodiment, the fastener members are hook tapes 23. (One of the hook tapes 23 is not shown). By means of the fastener members, the protective belt 2 can be connected to the waist protection board 4. Each adjustment belt 3 is an elongated belt body. Fastener members are disposed on both inner and outer faces of two ends of the adjustment belt 3. The fastener members can be a hook, loop fasteners, snap fasteners or buttons. In this embodiment, the fastener members disposed on the inner faces are hook tapes 31, 300 and the fastener members disposed on the outer faces are loop tapes 30, 310. By means of the fastener members, the adjustment belts 3 can be connected to the waist protection board 4 or the fastening straps 21, 22 of the protective belt 2.
The waist protection board 4 includes a substrate 40 enclosed in a fabric layer, several fabric pockets 400 disposed on outer face of the substrate 40 for receiving support members therein, and upper and lower connection tapes 43, 44 fixedly disposed on the outer face of the substrate 40. The upper and lower connection tapes 43, 44 have fastener members, which can be a hook, loop fasteners, snap fasteners or buttons. In this embodiment, the fastener members are loop tapes 42. The adjustment belts 3 are connected to the upper connection tapes 43, while the fastening straps 21, 22 of the protective belt 2 are connected to the lower connection tapes 44. The above components can be assembled in different stages according to the conditions of a pregnant woman for the pregnant woman to wear.
Please refer to FIGS. 4 to 6. Even though the belly size of a pregnant women during the second trimester may not be as big as during the third trimester, the waist and lower back of the pregnant woman still bear a considerable load. When a pregnant woman wears the maternity belt of the present invention, the wider protective cover body 20 of the protective belt 2 serves to hold and support the lower belly 50 of the pregnant woman 5. The loop tapes 30, 300 of the adjustment belts 3 are connected to the hook tapes 23 on the narrower fastening straps 21, 22 integrally extending from two sides of the wider protective cover body 20. Then the adjustment belts 3 are wound over two sides of the waist and around the lower back of the pregnant woman 5. Then two ends of the adjustment belts 3 be attached to the opposite side of the wider protective cover body 20. (as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6). In this case, the protective belt 2 is positioned on the lower belly 50 of the pregnant woman 5 to provide support and protection effect. The sticking position of the adjustment belts 3 can be adjusted according to the change in belly size of the pregnant woman 5 to achieve the best support and comfort. Therefore, when wearing the maternity belt of the present invention, the uncomfortable feeling of the pregnant woman 5 is minimized (with reference to FIG. 6).
As the pregnancy progress, the belly of the pregnant woman 5 becomes bigger (as shown in FIG. 7). Under such circumstance, the waist protection board 4 is positioned on the back of the pregnant woman 5 and the narrow fastening straps 21, 22 of the protective belt 2 are wound over two sides of the waist of the pregnant woman 5 to the waist protection board 4. The hook tapes 23 at the end of the fastening straps 21, 22 are attached and fixedly connected to the loop tapes 42 of the lower connection tapes 44 of the waist protection board 4. In this case, the wider protective cover body 20 and the waist protection board 4 are respectively positioned on the belly and the back of the later pregnancy stage pregnant woman 5. In addition, the hook tapes 31 at the end of the adjustment belts 3 are stuck to the upper connection tapes 43 of the waist protection board 4. Then the adjustment belts 3 are wound over two sides of the waist of the pregnant woman 5 to the upper belly of the pregnant woman 5. The hook and loop tapes 300, 30 on the inner and outer faces of the adjustment belts 3 are stuck and fixedly connected to each other. Eventually, the adjustment belts 3 and the fastening straps 21, 22 of the protective belt 2 are respectively connected to the upper and lower connection tapes 43, 44 of the waist protection board 4 and located (as shown in FIG. 8). Accordingly, the support force applied by the protective belt 2 to the lower belly is enhanced and the soreness and discomfort of the waist and back of the pregnant woman are relieved.
Referring to FIG. 9, the positions where the fastening straps 21, 22 and the adjustment belts 3 are attached and connected to the upper and lower connection tapes 43, 44 of the waist protection board 4 can be adjusted so the upward supporting and holding force of the protective cover body 20 may applied to the belly of the pregnant woman 5. Accordingly, the late pregnancy stage pregnant woman 5 can comfortably wear the present invention with a best belly support effect.
FIG. 10 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, in which the waist protection board 4 is different from that of the first embodiment. In the second embodiment, multiple closed envelopes 6 are disposed on the outer face of the waist protection board 4. The envelopes 6 (may be inserted with a gas or liquid-filled container) to improve the supporting functions. This embodiment is applicable to woman in her early pregnancy who bears smaller load on the waist and spine. This embodiment can also provide soreness relieving and waist protection effect.
In case of length insufficiency of the fastening straps 21, 22 of the protective belt 2 and adjustment belt 3, the connection tapes 43, 44 can be elongated to form elongated connection straps 7 (as shown in FIG. 11). Under such circumstance, the fastening straps 21, 22 and adjustment belt 3 can be conveniently attached and fixedly connected to the elongated connection straps 7.
The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the present invention, not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications of the above embodiments can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

Claims

What is claimed:

1. An adjustable protective maternity belt comprising:

a protective belt having a wider protective cover body and two narrower fastening straps integrally extending from two sides of the protective cover body, the protective cover body serving to hold and support lower belly of a pregnant woman;

a waist protection board including a substrate enclosed in a fabric layer, multiple fabric pockets disposed on outer face of the substrate for receiving support members therein, and connection tapes disposed on the outer face of the substrate, the connection tapes having fastener members disposed on surfaces of the connection tapes, the fastening straps of the protective belt being wound over two sides of the waist of the pregnant woman to connect with the fastener members of the connection tapes of the waist protection board; and

at least one adjustment belt including an elongated belt body and fastener members disposed at two ends of the elongated belt body for connecting with the connection tapes of the waist protection board, the adjustment belts being wound over two sides of the waist of the pregnant woman to upper belly of the pregnant woman and connected with each other.

2. The adjustable protective maternity belt as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fastener members are hook and loop fasteners.

3. The adjustable protective maternity belt as claimed in claim 1, wherein the substrate of the waist protection board is a soft pad.

4. The adjustable protective maternity belt as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fastener members of the connection tapes are hook and loop fasteners.

5. The adjustable protective maternity belt as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fabric pockets of the waist protection board are envelopes inserted with a gas or a liquid-filled container.

6. The adjustable protective maternity belt as claimed in claim 1, wherein the support members are stands adjustable in hardness.

7. An adjustable protective maternity belt comprising:

a protective belt having a wider protective cover body and two narrower fastening straps integrally extending from two sides of the protective cover body, the protective cover body serving to hold and support lower belly of a pregnant woman, fastener members being disposed on inner faces of the fastening straps; and

at least one adjustment belt including an elongated belt body and fastener members disposed at two ends of the elongated belt body for connection with the fastening straps of the protective belt, the adjustment belts being wound over two sides of the waist of the pregnant woman, continued around the back of the pregnant woman and attached to the opposite side of the protection belt.