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Dr Odile Bagot (Gynecologist-obstetrician)
In a video that has gone viral, Kat Shultis, a 28-week pregnant fitness influencer, demonstrates how she can tuck in her pregnant belly using her pelvic muscles. But is the practice safe or dangerous? The answer from our gynecologist Odile Bagot.
The video is made without special effects. Kat Shultis, a recent fitness influencer, made the internet react a few weeks ago: she demonstrated on camera how she had developed the daily habit of pulling in her stomach completely to the point of making her belly bump disappear. A practice which did not fail to surprise, but also to worry Internet users. Wasn’t the baby suffering?
The young woman was inspired by the “Bloom Method”
Faced with questions, the young woman was quick to respond: “In fact, it’s super good for preparing your body for childbirth and for postpartum ! This is how you exercise your abdominal muscles during pregnancy.”
The trend does not come from nowhere: Kat Shultis relies on the Bloom Method, a technique created by Brooke Cates, an expert in pregnancy exercises who intends to work the abdominal belt by breathing with the diaphragm (this is i.e. inhale while inflating the stomach, and exhale while pulling in the stomach). The method thus promises several advantages:
- Activate the pelvic floor, transverse abdominis muscles, and abdominal muscles;
- Reduce lower back and pelvic pain;
- Facilitate pushing during childbirth;
- Send relaxation signals to the future baby;
- Reduce the risk of suffering from rectus diastasis after childbirth;
- Reduce the risk of prolapse after childbirth.
Benefits or dangers, the opinion of our gynecologist
Is this influence true? Is tucking in your (pregnant woman’s) belly a good exercise to incorporate into your pregnancy routine? Is this a useless or even dangerous gesture? Doctor Odile Bagot, gynecologist and member of our expert committee, qualifies the statement a little:
“In reality, his exercise is nothing extraordinary. This is called gymnastics hypopressive, which is the right way to do abs when you are pregnant by “swallowing” your belly rather than doing stretches. This allows you to work the perineumwhile inhaling, then the abdominal belt while exhaling.”
For its part, the risk is non-existent for the baby: “The baby’s volume remains the same during breathing, and bathed in the amniotic liquid, there is no risk of being crushed as one might think. Especially since the pressure is not that great. On the other hand, does it relax him? We have no way of knowing.”
A practice that must be supervised
If the practice of this “bloom methods” or hypopressive gymnastics can therefore be included in your pregnancy exercises, the gynecologist still recalls some precautionary principles.
“For there to be benefits, you still have to be trained, know the technique, and do it correctly. Because bad abdominals on the contrary increase the risk of diastasisthat is to say a separation of the major rights in women.
Our expert also specifies that such exercises should be avoided at the end of pregnancy: “I would say that beyond 28 weeks, beyond the 6th month, there is also a risk of creating this diastasis by exercising. So after the pregnancy has progressed to a certain extent, we avoid it.
Let us also remember that, like any sporting activity during pregnancy, it is always a good idea to seek the advice of your midwife or gynecologist.