Jessica Alba used an unconventional method to get back to her pre-baby weight after giving birth to her second daughter, Haven. She wore a double corset that made her sweat, she told Net-a-Porter while doing an interview to promote her new book, "The Honest Life."
"It was brutal," said Alba, describing the process. "I wore a double corset day and night for three months.
"It's not for everyone," the 31-year-old actress admits. "It was sweaty, but worth it."
The corsets, which are called abdominal binders, are meant to provide support after the physical changes that result from childbirth.
"The concept behind abdominal binders, very common after surgery and after delivery of baby to help support abdominal muscles...helps posture and helps reduce feelings of bloating," said Dr. Ashton, a senior medical contributor to ABC News. "Imagine taking a big breath and never fully exhaling and that's basically the feeling the person has for hours."
This method of wearing uncomfortable corsets to get back to a pre-baby figure is popular with many celebrity moms, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Garner and Kourtney Kardashian, who have all been rumored to use the abdominal binders.
"It supports that baggy baby skin, it helps you with water retention, and it just makes you feel like you have some support around your belly, cause everything's changing, everything's stretched out," Brooke-Burke Charvet, an actress and mother of four, told ABC. She has created her own version, called the Tauts.
"Since the beginning of time, women have been dealing with weight they have during pregnancy," Dr. Ashton. "At the end of the day, there's no magic bullet, it takes time, exercise and a huge genetic component."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
