If your tummy still looks pregnant months after delivery, a postpartum abdominal condition called diastasis recti might be to blame. Here's all you need to know about this common post-baby condition which affects 2 in every 3 postpartum women.
What Is Diastasis Recti?
Diastasis recti is the widening of the gap between the two sections of the Rectus Abdominis (or 6 pack) abdominal muscle. The split occurs at any point along the Linea Alba, the mid-line collagen structures of connective tissue at the front of the abdomen.
In simple terms, it's a gap in between your right and left abdominal wall muscles.
What Does It Look Like?
A tell-tale sign that you may have one is a ‘pooching’ or ‘doming’ of your stomach, especially when coming up from a lying position on your back. Sometimes you appear to still be a few months pregnant.
How Do I Know If I Have It? It's easy to perform a self-test for diastasis recti. To help you, we've put together a simple two minute video showing you how to check your tummy for this separation.
Diastasis Recti & Exercise
It is important to know if you have a diastasis before commencing an exercise regime to ensure the exercises you do are suitable and focus on closing the gap rather than aggravating it. Most 6 week GP check ups don't physically check for this as standard so often new mums have no idea they are suffering from this until they start experiencing other symptoms such as pelvic floor issues.
How Do I Fix It?
At our Crèche Fit classes, we talk a lot about the impact of having a diastasis and have developed an effective Core Restore home exercise programme designed specifically to strengthen the core and close or improve the gap. All while avoiding exercises that can exacerbate the problem such as crunches - a major diastasis recti no-no. This programme can easily followed at home in your own time and takes just a few minutes every day. We will be posting further content on this programme shortly so watch this space and make sure you subscribe to our You Tube Channel to be kept up to date on new and relevant content!
We hope this information and video helps but if you have any questions, just drop us a message. We're always happy to help!