Fitness influencer's pregnant stomach disappears in the blink of an eye sparking concerns

Pregnancy can be a long and tiresome process, as pregnant TikToker Tammy Hembrow knows all too well and she demonstrated this in a new video with a contentious trick.

The Australian influencer sparked concern from fans as she managed to make her bump disappear and her abdomen completely flat by taking a deep breath in and using her core muscles, with the aptly titled song "Poof, Be Gone" by KyleYouMadeThat playing in the clip.

Hembrow is currently 24-weeks pregnant with her first child with fiancé and rugby player Matt Poole, and she also shares two children, son Wolf, 6, and daughter Saskia, 5, with ex-partner Reece Hawkins who is also a fitness influencer.

Since sharing her bump trick, Hembrow's video has received a staggering 15.5m views, with nearly 980,000 likes, along with thousands of comments from fans who expressed their concern over whether the move was safe for the baby.

😅😅

😅😅

One person wrote: "Legit question… wouldn’t that be bad for the baby? Like suddenly out of nowhere just tightening up everything… have studies been done on the shock?"

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

"Is this not bad for the baby? I’m actually curious," another person asked.

Someone else added: "I literally gasped-"

"Ummm where did the baby go," a fourth person questioned.

Though not to worry, as Hembrow addressed those concerns in the comments and reassured fans that the baby is fine and breathing in like that and sucking in her stomach is safe.

"It’s actually recommended bracing your core like this throughout pregnancy, especially since I train a lot. Bubby is just fine!" the influencer replied to one comment.

"I have to do it when I train, super good for your core doing it throughout pregnancy," she added.

It's not the first time, a video like this has gone viral with videos of pregnant women flattening their stomachs in a similar way back in 2017 using the Bloom Method, created by Colorado personal trainer Brooke Cates.

She toldTODAYthe reason pregnant bellies get small "is not because the woman is sucking in, but because she's using her inner core unit."

"She's inhaling with the diaphragm as the belly gets bigger and then on the exhale, she's lifting through the pelvic floor and starting to wrap the transverse abdominal muscles — it's like she's using her muscles to hug her baby," Cates explained.

While doctors do not agree with Cates' claims that exercises can guarantee the prevention of stretch marks nor that it can lead to an easier birth, they do believe exercising your abdominal muscles can be beneficial during pregnancy.

Dr. Jaques Moritz, an OB-GYN at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York also told TODAY: "I think the idea of learning about and controlling your abdominal muscles are great — you're using them a lot for pushing a baby out, there's no doubt about that."

"Anything that gets people more in touch with their core and their ab muscles, if it helps them control their body and strengthen their body, I do think that will greatly help them," continued Moritz.

Meanwhile, the NHS recommends pregnant women to "Keep up your normal daily physical activity or exercise," and added that strengthening stomach (abdominal) muscles may ease backache.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.