Thanks to Spanx's new maternity line, pregnant gals no longer have to suffer the indignity of their big fat guts hanging out too much. Oh no. With Spanx’s help, they can even hide their offending fertile bellies with no one being the wiser!

A girdle for pregnant bellies? Are you freaking kidding me?

How depressing to see the English-speaking world catching up with the Italian obsession with pregnant women's weight. I don’t know if a product like this has hit Italy yet, but it will surely be a sensation here.

Whatever happened to the 12-to-21-month grace period from body-image madness a woman gets when she has a baby? This used to be one of the few times in a woman’s life when she could truly, unashamedly luxuriate in her big, soft curves.

I understand that not everyone thinks pregnant bellies are beautiful. But it seems criminal to me to suggest that women lock ‘em down and reign 'em in like so much unsightly cellulite.

And then there’s Spanx’s name for its maternity corset: Power Mama. Right. I’m going to associate maternal strength with something that restrains its ultimate symbol.

As the Globe and Mail’s Katrina Onstad put it:

[W]hen will the definition of sexy include a heavier body, one that’s en route to motherhood or even bruised and a little wiser from childbirth? When can a woman be both a mother and a lover, at any size?

I, for one, have decided to glory in my squishy, curvaceous postpartum body. I have so much respect for everything it went through and am fiercely proud of my battle scars. In fact, one of the best things I got out of pregnancy and childbirth (besides my amazing baby of course) is greater acceptance of my body. The only reason I’m annoyed that I still can’t fit into my pre-pregnancy pants and skirts is for lack of clothing choices and not wanting to shell out for new stuff.

Besides, surely there are sound biological reasons it takes a while for our bodies to slim down after giving birth. If nothing else, it seems cruel to deprive infants of all that cushiony loveliness to snuggle up to.