Piercings and pregnancy: the navel, the jewelry and the scar
A navel piercing and a pregnancy occupy the same piece of skin, and one of them is about to change shape considerably. This page is about what happens to the jewelry, the channel and the scar, which is the part a piercing studio can actually tell you about.
It is not medical advice and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Anything about your body rather than your jewelry belongs with your doctor or your midwife, and we will say so again where it matters.
The navel, which is the whole question for most people
A standard navel piercing sits through the rim of skin above the belly button. That rim is soft tissue, and over roughly nine months it goes from a fold to a stretched surface.
What people expect is that it will hurt. What actually happens is usually more gradual and more specific. The skin thins as it stretches, the fixed bar stops matching the shape it sits in, and the pressure moves from spread across the channel to concentrated at one end.
Two things follow from that. The channel can migrate, meaning the jewelry slowly cuts its way toward the surface, and the skin over it can thin to the point where it gives. Our page on rejection and migration explains the mechanism properly, because it is the same one either way.
The timing is not the same for everybody and nobody can tell you yours in advance. Some people carry a navel piercing to term with nothing worse than tightness. Plenty find it becomes uncomfortable somewhere in the second trimester. It depends on how you carry, on how much the skin has to stretch and on how well the piercing was healed to begin with.
The three options, in order of how often they work
Change to a flexible bar. A polymer bar, usually PTFE or bioflex, bends with the skin instead of resisting it. It can be fitted long and trimmed, it moves as you change shape, and for most people this is the answer that keeps the piercing.
Have it fitted at a studio rather than ordering one and doing it yourself. The length has to be right, and threading an unfamiliar bar through a channel you cannot see is how people lose the hole in an evening.
Take it out and use a retainer later. If the skin is already complaining, out is out. A healed navel channel does not necessarily close in a day, but it does shrink, and it can close over weeks. That is not a disaster and it is not permanent, which brings us to the third option.
Take it out and accept that it closes. Many people do this and are re-pierced afterwards. It is a clean decision and it removes the whole problem for the rest of the pregnancy.
When to stop trying to keep it
There are signs that the tissue has had enough, and pushing past them is what turns a piercing into a scar.
The skin above the jewelry looking thin, shiny or stretched. Being able to see the bar through it more clearly than you used to. Soreness that does not settle. The holes looking further apart than they were, or the entry and exit points migrating toward each other.
Any of those means take it out. A piercing removed in time leaves two small marks. A piercing left in until the tissue gives leaves a split scar that no jewelry will ever sit in again.
Roughly what happens, and when
No two pregnancies do this on the same schedule, so treat the following as the shape of it rather than a calendar.
Early on, usually nothing. The navel has not changed and the piercing behaves as it always did. This is the useful window, and it is the right time to switch to a flexible bar if you intend to keep it, because doing it now is a calm five-minute job rather than a rescue.
The middle stretch is where most people notice it. The skin above the navel starts to take real tension, and a rigid bar that has sat happily for years begins to feel like an object rather than part of you. Tightness, a little redness at one end, an awareness of it when you bend. This is the point to have it looked at.
Late on, the navel itself often changes shape. An innie can become an outie, and when that happens the geometry the piercing was built for has gone. Most piercings that come out come out around here, and coming out is the right answer rather than a failure.
Do not try to read your own timeline off somebody else's. People who carry differently have completely different experiences of the same piercing.
Telling normal stretching from a channel in trouble
This is the distinction worth learning, because one of them means carry on and the other means today.
Normal. A general feeling of tightness that comes and goes with how you are sitting. Mild pinkness that settles. The bar feeling snug at the end of the day and fine in the morning.
Not normal. Skin over the bar that has gone shiny or translucent, so the metal reads through it. Entry and exit points that look closer together than they used to, which means the jewelry is cutting toward the surface. Soreness that is there every morning. Anything discharging.
The shiny-skin sign is the one to act on fastest. Once you can see the shape of the bar through the skin, the tissue covering it is thin, and thin tissue under tension is what tears. Nobody regrets taking a piercing out a fortnight early. Plenty of people regret a fortnight late.
If you cannot tell which you are looking at, that is exactly what a piercer is for, and it is a look rather than an appointment.
Nipple piercings
Breast tissue changes early in pregnancy, often before anything else does, and it keeps changing.
The jewelry that fitted before will usually stop fitting, and a bar that is too short in tissue that has swollen is the same problem as a short bar anywhere: pressure at both ends and a channel that starts to react. Longer bars solve that, fitted by somebody who can see it.
For feeding, the jewelry comes out. That is not a studio rule, it is a practical one. Jewelry in a nipple is a hazard to an infant and it interferes with feeding mechanically. Take it out before, not during.
Whether the piercings affect feeding at all is a question for a lactation consultant or your doctor, not for us. What we can tell you is the jewelry part: healed nipple channels are among the more persistent, and many people find they can re-fit jewelry after they have finished feeding, sometimes needing the channel eased open by a piercer rather than forced by hand.
Everything above the neck
Ears, nostril, septum, eyebrow, lip. These are not in tissue that changes shape in pregnancy and they generally carry on as normal.
Two caveats worth knowing. Swelling is common in pregnancy and it is not confined to ankles, so a snug bar in a lobe or a helix can become a tight one. If something that used to sit comfortably starts to feel pressed, get the length checked rather than waiting.
The second is that some people become more reactive during pregnancy, and jewelry that was fine for years can start to irritate. If that happens, the metal is worth checking before anything else. Our page on what jewelry is made of covers the materials that cause it.
Getting pierced while pregnant
Ring and ask us, on (450) 682 1777, rather than assuming either way. Many studios decline and there are real reasons behind it rather than squeamishness.
A new piercing is an open wound that takes months to close. Our healing times page has the actual figures and they are longer than people expect. Committing to that healing window during a period when your body is already doing a great deal, and when you may need to be treated or admitted at short notice, is a decision with a poor risk-to-benefit ratio.
There is also the practical point that any piercing which needs to come out for a procedure is a piercing that may close. And if the placement is a navel, it is going into the one piece of skin that is about to stretch.
None of that is a medical opinion. If you want one, ask the person looking after your pregnancy. We are telling you why studios say what they say.
Hospitals, procedures and metal
Worth knowing in advance rather than in a corridor.
Hospitals routinely ask for jewelry to be removed before a procedure, and for some, including any imaging, it is not negotiable. Nobody is going to make an exception for a piercing you are attached to, and the moment you are asked is not the moment to be learning how your jewelry unscrews.
So learn it beforehand, on a calm afternoon, in a mirror. Know which end of your navel bar opens. Know whether your septum jewelry is a ring that unclasps or a bar that unscrews. If you have never taken a piece out yourself, ask a piercer to show you.
Glass or polymer retainers exist for exactly this and are worth having in a drawer before you need one, though whether they can stay in for any given procedure is a decision for the staff doing it, not for us.
Stretch marks and the scar afterwards
People ask whether a navel piercing causes stretch marks. It does not. Stretch marks are the dermis tearing under rapid stretch and they happen where they happen.
What a piercing does is add two small scars to skin that is being stretched, and scar tissue is less elastic than the skin around it. That is why the channel can behave badly under stretch when the surrounding skin copes, and it is another argument for a flexible bar rather than a rigid one.
After the birth, the marks left by a removed navel piercing usually fade over months in the same way other small scars do. If the piercing had migrated or torn before it came out, that mark is larger and more permanent, which is the whole reason for taking it out early rather than late.
Afterwards, and re-piercing
The most common question we get after a birth is how soon a navel can be re-pierced.
The answer is not a fixed number of weeks. It is that the skin has to have settled back to whatever shape it is going to be, and that takes as long as it takes. Piercing skin that is still changing puts you straight back where you started.
The second condition is the scar. If the old channel left a clean pair of marks, we can often go through or beside them. If it tore, that tissue may not be suitable at all, and a piercer should look at it and tell you honestly rather than take the booking.
Come in and be looked at. It is a five-minute conversation and it beats guessing.
What we will not tell you
Whether it is safe for you. Whether your piercing is a problem for your pregnancy. Whether an existing piercing affects anything about the birth or feeding.
Those are all real questions and none of them is ours. We know channels, jewelry, tissue and healing. Your doctor or midwife knows you. Where the two overlap, ask them first and bring us the jewelry part.
Where we are
Piercings & Co., CF Carrefour Laval, unit J012A, 3003 Boulevard le Carrefour, Laval, Quebec H7T 1C7. Call (450) 682 1777.
If you want a flexible bar fitted, or you are not sure whether what you are looking at is normal stretching or a channel about to give, come in and we will look. There is no charge for being looked at.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will I have to take my navel piercing out?
Not necessarily. Many people keep it by switching to a flexible polymer bar that bends with the skin. Some find the tissue objects anyway, usually in the second or third trimester, and then it comes out. Nobody can tell you in advance which you will be.
When should it come out?
When the skin above it starts looking thin, shiny or stretched, when you can see the bar through it more than you used to, or when soreness stops settling. Removed in time it leaves two small marks. Left too long it leaves a split scar that will not take jewelry again.
Can you fit a flexible bar for me?
Yes, and it is better done at a studio than ordered online and fitted at home. The length has to be right and threading an unfamiliar bar through a channel you cannot see is how people lose the hole.
Do I have to remove nipple jewelry to breastfeed?
Yes, take it out before feeding rather than during. Jewelry in a nipple is a hazard to an infant and it gets in the way mechanically. Whether the piercings affect feeding itself is a question for your doctor or a lactation consultant, not for a piercing studio.
Will the hole close if I take it out?
It may, over weeks rather than hours, and a healed channel is more stubborn than a fresh one. Many people are simply re-pierced afterwards, which is a clean answer and removes the worry for the rest of the pregnancy.
Can I get pierced while pregnant?
Ring and ask us on (450) 682 1777. Many studios decline, because a new piercing is an open wound healing for months at a time when you may need treatment at short notice, and because a navel goes into the skin that is about to stretch. Whether it is safe for you is a question for your doctor.
How soon after the birth can I be re-pierced?
When the skin has settled into the shape it is going to keep, which is not a fixed number of weeks. The scar matters too. Come in and let a piercer look at it rather than booking blind.