There’s now ‘flat tummy tea’ for pregnant women and when will the madness stop?
Perhaps you’re familiar with those detox teas that high profile Instagrammers are often paid (what seems to be) exorbitant amounts of money to promote?
De-bumping tea?
Those teas seem to be reaching saturation point, so their makers have come up with a new marketing target – pregnant women.
Yep. There are flat tummy teas for pregnant women now, and they purport to prevent “bloating” and support digestion while pushing the insidious flat tummy message.
This tea was brought to the attention of hundreds of worried Instagrammers by personality Amber Rose, who shared a photo of her pregnant self clutching this brand new tea.
“Okay listen up,” Amber wrote. “Flat Tummy Tea just launched an Organic Pregnancy Tea to help us moms with those bloated, nauseous, blah feeling days! It’s safe to take while pregnant and breastfeeding.”
Adding a further disclaimer, Amber tackled possible concerns about the notion of pregnancy flat tummy tea head on. She figured that people might think she was encouraging women to do a detox during pregnancy and pointed out that this is not what the tea is for.
“This is not a detox tea – it’s specially designed to help reduce occasional nausea and support digestion during pregnancy – haters stop riding the bandwagon and think for yourselves.”
This is the same company that is often spruiked by the likes of Khloé Kardashian. And the same crew that has come under fire for their terrible body and health messaging from The Good Place star Jameela Jamil.
Mixed messages
So while the tea doesn’t overtly claim to give pregnant women a flat tummy, the company name coupled with the fact that it claims to ease “bloating” sends a confusing message about what’s ‘normal’ during pregnancy.
This development mortified commenters on the post, and let’s face it there’s already way too much pressure on pregnant and postpartum women to reject the body they’re inhabiting. This tea seems to take that body shaming to the next level, all in the name of making a very high-profit margin product.
People let their thoughts be known pretty quickly, and they were passionately against the idea of this tea and the not so subtle message it’s sending to mums.
“Imagine drinking something called flat tummy when you’re pregnant. Oh, lord,” one commenter posted.
“A laxative tea for pregnant women? … This is just wrong,” another person wrote.
“Flat Tummy Tea for pregnancy. Jesus now I’ve seen it all,” a dismayed follower commented.
“That bloating is called a baby …” someone else pointed out and honestly they’re totally spot on.
Not safe during pregnancy?
But there are more problems with this sort of product – and this one in particular – than the anti-bump sentiment it seems to spout.
On the website where this tea is sold – ($56 for 28 serves) – things get even more upsetting.
“Babes with babies, this one is for you! If you’re feeling bloated, nauseous or like you could use a little extra help with digestion, we’ve officially got you covered,” the Organic Pregnancy Tea product blurb says.
But further down the Organic Pregnancy Tea product page comes this: “Results from consuming the products offered on the site may vary from person to person. Please do not use the products available on the site when pregnant or breastfeeding.”
Hm. The bottom line is that you shouldn’t even consider using packaged teas like this without talking to your healthcare provider and you definitely shouldn’t listen to any flat tummy-themed company spruiking anti-bloating tea to pregnant women.
