diastisis recti

[buttershy]

Hi all,

I have SPD and saw a physio a few weeks ago for it. I mentioned during my session that I had noticed that when I 'engage' my core, ie lowering myself from sitting to lying down on the bed, or if I lean backwards standing up that my tummy goes into an incredibly strange triangluar shape. She said it was called diastisis recti, separation of the abdominal muscles and that it was more common in petite women (I'm 5ft 2) and generally fairly small all over. She said she would see me again after the birth to help give me some exercises to help it to close up. I've done a bit of reading since and it looks quite depressing in that exercise only has limited success. I'm only 25 and I don't want my body to be totally ruined, I'm already a self conscious person and I hate the idea of always hating something about me. The pictures on google images look so scary :( I am 35wks and have put on 10kg (approx up from 8st 12 to 10st 2).

I am wondering if anyone else has had diastisis recti, if they were diagnosed before or after baby being born and if anything can help, such as a belly support band after birth.

Thanks

[buttershy]

Oh and my baby is measuring 2.5 weeks 'behind' so not a big baby.

[CatsCantFlyFast]

My understanding was that this is common/normal regardless of size. You need to be careful with exercise after birth as doing the wrong thing can make it worse not better.
Please don't worry - your body changes a lot during pregnancy, some areas go back to as they were before and some don't but it's likely this will rectify itself just fine

[buttershy]

Thank you, glad to hear it's common..surely then it's not as terrible as I'm expecting! Yes will wait for guidance from physio as last thing I want is to cause further problems to my SPD or exasperate the gap too.

[Liss85]

From what I've read the abdominal muscles separate during pregnancy as part of the normal course of things and it's only diastasis recti if it doesn't go back to normal and you're left with a permanent gap. Exercises can help immensely and a lot of people don't feel the need for anything else but you can also get surgery if it bothers you a lot.
I'm 31 weeks and recently noticed my stomach doing the cone thing, I'm 5'8", have a long torso, small bump and I am by no means petite. Baby is measuring on the 50 percentile.

[Blossom567]

I had it with DS1 and body recovered after. I'm now pregnant again (40wks) and haven't had it this time round. So agree with others - don't panic, it's amazing what your body can cope with.

[NewStartNewName]

Happened with DS2. You can't do sit ups/crunches as it will make it worse. Wait and see how things are after the birth - don't worry it's not so bad really