Jessa Duggar’s ‘baby bump announcement’ is so honest

There is quite a baby boom going on among members of the Duggar family lately. But currently not among the expectant parents? Counting On star Jessa Duggar—even though that hasn’t stopped people from asking when she’s going to have a third baby with husband Ben Seewald.

“Bc I’ve been asked if I’m hiding a bit of a bump… BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Yes,” Duggar said in a recent Instagram Story. “But it’s currently a shrinking bump rather than a growing one. #postpartum #baggyshirts #thanksforasking.”

After welcoming her first sons, Spurgeon, 2, and Henry, 1, in quick succession, Duggar is now plenty busy—and the last thing she needs is to be fielding questions about whether the family is growing. But we really do have to give her credit for being so witty in her response!

The truth is pregnancy shapes bodies in significant ways that can persist long after baby is born. According to a 2016 study published in the British Medical Journal, some 60% of new moms experience diastasis recti, a separation of the abdominal muscles that can be responsible for a “postpartum belly pooch.”

Although there are exercises that can help address diastasis recti and the muscles typically heal in time, it’s different for every woman. As Jennifer Garner, another public figure who was constantly under watch for a baby bump, once joked to Ellen DeGeneres, “From now on, ladies, I will have a bump, and it will be my baby bump. It’s not going anywhere… Forever and ever, not another baby. Just a bump like a camel. But just in reverse.”

While celebrities do share much of their lives with us, it’s worth remembering they are allowed to keep information private, too. So next time Duggar has a “big announcement” to make, hopefully it will be on her own terms.

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