When I was nine months pregnant and as enormous as a whale, a dark line stretched from the bottom of my basketball stomach to my protruding belly button. I’ve learned that this is common with pregnancy and is called the linea nigra, otherwise known as a stretch mark. Some women smartly used creams on their growing bellies their entire pregnancies to prevent this particular stretch mark and others from appearing elsewhere. I, however, was not well-versed in stretch marks, as this was my first pregnancy and I had few friends with children nearby to advise me, so I didn’t lather with lotion everyday. I also assumed that the stretch mark would just fade away after birth, until a well-intentioned friend visiting me asked if I was terrified it wouldn’t.

My mission was then launched and the search for a solution ensued. As I was on a limited budget, I went to the closest CVS pharmacy and purchased Vita-K Stretch Mark Cream. This cream with vitamin K is fairly inexpensive, around $9 to $12 a tube, which  will last around a month if used twice a day. I wasn’t sure it was safe to use when pregnant, as it contains a high amount of vitamin K, so I waited to use it until after my son’s birth. Thankfully, there is no stretch mark visible on my tum today—after using the cream religiously for three months. While the Vita-K solution is supposed to work on varicose veins too, I haven’t had as good luck with getting rid of those!