Pregnancy is weird. It can be so different from one woman to the next, and you never know what your own pregnancy bingo scorecard of symptoms will be.

Until you find yourself clinging to a traffic light at the corner of 8th Ave and Geary, unable to walk another step, and realize: round ligament pain. Check.

The good news is that, throwing vanity to the wind (and really, vanity and pregnancy don’t really go together anyway), I was able to strap myself into this contraption and my round ligament pain disappeared.

Well, as long as I kept it on.

Thanks to the belt, I went from barely being able to walk a block down the street without feeling the strain, to my usual 5-10 mile hikes, even at 8 months pregnant. It made that much of a difference.

Your growing belly is supported by a series of ligaments. In my head, I like to think of it as the architectural requirements for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water. Eventually, your stomach is this cantilevered protrusion from your body; you need structural supports strong enough to keep that stomach propped up and moving outward. Those would be your ligaments.

And, yes, you can feel round ligament pain before your stomach is even really protruding. Dave did not understand why I walked so slowly, because I looked mostly normal.

The support belt acts like a suspension cable (to continue the architecture metaphor), distributing some of the load away from your round ligaments and over to your back.

Sure, I had to wear mine everyday, but it fit fine under maternity jeans; friends didn’t even know I had something on. From 4 to 7 months, I used the two main bands that surround your stomach. I had to add the top band around 8 months.

I really do think it transformed my pregnancy, and I can’t recommend it enough if you’re also suffering from round ligament pain.

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On Amazon: Soft Form Maternity Support Belt (I got mine in beige)