So I'm reading the book what to expect when expecting 2008, and they say the best way to tell you're at risk of stretch marks is if your mom had them. I also heard it is better to eat collagen (skin develop) and vitamin C (skin healing) in your diet then just rubbing it on with a cream. I would say that keeping your skin moisturized would still be a good idea, but I would advocate buying expensive creams (no studies to really back them up)
Bio oil! You can get it at a drugstore usually.
Bio oil, mederma (starting 2nd trimester), ItWorks and a few other tummy butters that you can find at walmart. But you can't fully prevent stretch marks, they're heriditary and also just how your skin is.
And mederma is expensive but there are studies backing it up and not just from stretch mark scarring but other scaring as well!
I was talking to this girl i know about sstretch marks and she told me she used vitamin E capsules from Sally's when she was pregnant, she would break them open and rub the gew from the inside of the capsule on her tummy and she kinda saw I was skeptical so she lifts up her shirt and she had no stretch marks at all!
Stretch marks are hereditary so if your mom had them, you're more likely to get them either way. I didn't get mine until 13 weeks but that was just on my breasts, but I didn't get them on my stomach until about 30 weeks. I've been using palmers cocoa butter but I'm going to start trying the Vitamin E oil, because it's good for perineum massage as well.
Consuming homemade bone broth is great, lots of collagen and gelatin.
I have stretch marks from growing 6 inches taller one summer, but I also wasn't a healthy eater in middle school going into highschool so I know I lacked in everything nutritionally.
I eat healthy now, take vitamins, have bone broth, consume food with tendons, etc now and don't have stretch marks currently thankfully. I also use cocoa butter externally. I'm 37 weeks along now and all tummy