In case you haven’t properly had your mind blown today, you need to see these videos of moms-to-be making their pregnant bellies “disappear.”
Nope, it’s just a breathing exercise known as “belly pumping.”
This technique was recently popularized as part of a fitness program based in Boulder, Colorado known as The Bloom Method. Created by Brooke Cates, Pregnancy and Post-Birth Exercise Specialist, The Bloom Method and “belly pumping” are a form of diaphragmatic breathing that uses deep core engagement. Essentially, these women are making their babies “disappear” in utero by sucking in in a very controlled way.
Cates tells Babble the babies are still safe and sound. “Belly pumping” just causes the fetus to temporarily slide up into the rib cage.