UKH

Anyone on here has any experience with climbing harnesses for pregnant people? What's proven to be the best type of harness/any model or other advice much appreciated.

The best one is the Mad Rock something full body harness. Designed for pregnant ladies. 

Can adjust to even smaller Ladies. If the lady is taller (~170 and upwards), then regular full body harnesses can also work. 

Thanks for the recommendation. Seems like the shops selling that model are all US based. Do you happen to have one you'd like to rid yourself of?

Yup, I ordered from the states... and unfortunately already our harness has been already sold.

But considerably cheaper Petzl or Singing Rock harnesses can also work.

Clearly fit differs for everyone, but Penny - my other half - found the Mad Rock harness pretty uncomfortable. Think the consensus from another thread was that the Petzl equivalent was the one to go for, plus it has the added benefit of being much more readily available in the UK.

Aside from that, best of luck with the rest of your pregnancy. We’re one month in to family life and are absolutely loving it.

Congratulations!   After 18 years it starts getting a bit easier 

Hello Rob,

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you have a specific petzl harness model in mind or is it their standard full body harness?

Thanks for the well wishes and congrats for the addition to the family. Hope you're getting some climbing done in between one nappy change and the next.

Sorry for the delayed reply.

Yes, it was just their standard full body harness. This seemed to load far more evenly than the Mad Rock, which Penny had found pretty unbearable/uncomfortable whilst being lowered off.

At the time we were half tempted to get a small group test put together, as this info was likely to be useful for plenty of others, but didn't due to the fact that it would have really needed a couple of other harnesses to make it truly comprehensive (and at the time I think Penny just wanted to go climbing!). That said, maybe it is something we should revisit if anyone else out there has experiences of other full body harnesses.

Maybe one to bear in mind if you hear of any feedback from elsewhere.

Hey hey, my partner went for a Petzl full body harness as the Mad Rock was hard to track down

Is there any advice on how it should fit on a pregnant body? We only tested the harness fleetingly but it looks like there quite a bit of lateral squeeze on the bump when 'hanging out'.

Did you find that it's normal that things get squeezed a bit or did the harness you/your partner's tried fit well around the belly?

I used the Mad Rock harness. Early on (4 months) it felt like it was crushing my ribs but surprisingly it got much more comfortable later in pregnancy. It still wasn't as comfortable as a normal harness but it was fine.

I think early on I had to adjust it so that as much weight as possible went onto the leg loops to make it more comfortable, and then later I needed those straps a bit looser to not squish the bump and tightened the back strap up to pull it to the side (away from bump). I think it will always squish the bump a little bit but I think as long as it's not uncomfortable for you around the bump area then it's probably fine for the baby too. 

Not sure if this will help for your harness but certainly faffing around trying different adjustments for comfort is worth doing and worth redoing every month or so.