Bowel or intestinal discomfort months after C-section – help

[sellotape12]

I’m almost 5 months postpartum and I have a big, distended stomach, and I have the runs every single day. Stool tests from the GP have come back negative for viruses and bacteria, and ultrasound didn’t show anything untoward regarding my reproductive organs.

The GP says the next step would be referral to gastroenterology, I just wondered if anyone had experienced a similar thing? I know about diastasis recti/abdominal muscle separation which I definitely also have. I don’t think it’s just that, and neither does my physio. It’s not just mummy tummy - my belly balloons up and it’s bloated. The only time it looks like a normal mummy tummy is first thing in the morning when I obviously haven’t eaten for 11 hours. I don’t have any food intolerances and never had anything like this before preg. Any doctors here or people with similar potential bowel/intestinal discomfort so long after C-section? I’m sorry to be vulgar, it’s just daily diarrhoea with a small baby is really getting me down 🙁 I have attached an image. I was a size 6 petite woman before pregnancy. Yes, some of this is normal fat, and some of it is the muscle separation, but it’s also my whole abdomen that’s bloated.

Bumping for you OP. I have similar. Except opposite problem of constipation. Ever get to the bottom of it?

Sorry will also at you as been a while @sellotape12

Hi there - I’m the same too!I have had a laparoscopy and they found endo on my scar but he doesn’t think that was causing my problems. Now off to see a gastro this week - I get right side flank pain and lower pelvic/back too. Convinced it’s an infection but have been on multiple antibiotics and nothing seems to clear it

Hi JR85

i have the same issue. Did you get any answers?

My gastro wanted to wait a month after putting me on fibre gels - but I’m feeling horrendous so have pushed for a follow this week and going to beg for a CT or MRI

How much PP are you now JR85

Mines started to go down quite a bit out of the blue the last month.

I did actually have my first period during that time so don’t know whether that’s related.

Hello. I’m updating on this five months later. Baby is now ten months. I don’t fully know what’s going on, but I learned that pregnancy can cause so many things that you don’t even think about. I learned from two women’s health physiotherapists that your digestive system can take a long time to calm down, especially if you had a big baby or a C-section. I have noticed that taking a probiotic at bedtime, really helps as well as something called hypoppressive breathing. It’s a breathing technique that you can do for 10 minutes a day and I would recommend following someone on YouTube. Now 10 months postpartum I still have a bit of a belly and it’s still blown up. I would say that I look about four months pregnant. I still have bloating even though my diastasis recti has healed. Probably going to do FODMAP now to find out which foods are causing me such gas, and I’m going to eat more protein in my diet.

Thanks for the update OP. I too turned a corner with mine. Went to a Pilates psychio and turns out my pelvis was tilted, spine curved and my core had collapsed. Digestion much better now although still a little way to go.

Oh that’s a lot! Have you regained your core strength? I’m proud to say I can see tone and definition coming back in my upper abs (Lower still sticks out 😥) but not without some serious work and Pilates moves

Yes doing much better now it’s amazing. So glad I found her she’s a miracle worker!

It’s weird as most of it was not hard work. It’s lots of breathing exercises whilst in your neutral position and postural awareness checking in throughout the day in between sessions. So nothing that makes you break into a sweat or even feel you are ‘exercising’. But it’s certainly doing a lot.

My pelvis was pretty much corrected in less than a month. My challenge now is the upper spine curve. So checking in every time I remember to flatten my rib cage (bring the splay together), but also be straight rather than hunched and to flatten the shoulder blades.

All these wonky bits were pulling the core apart so no matter how much exercise I did it would never have gone back without sorting these bits outs.

Am in no doubt by the time I am finished will be stronger than I ever have been.

Did you ever find an answer? I have the same thing, including the upper right quadrant pain.. no answers yet.

I did @TammieRose90 Proud to say my body is back and my stomach like a washboard again.

I had the upper right quadrant pain too. It was basically a sluggish digestion and a borderline hernia.

I believe op fixed hers too. Sounds like she was well on the way.

It is a journey though! You will need help to figure out exactly what it is and how to fix it. I found nhs wholly unhelpful. They think if you don’t have a three finger diastis then you’re good to go.

Time helps also but I don’t believe my body would have gone back without the work I did.

It wasn’t dieting or effort at the gym or anything like that. It was finding someone really experienced with post partum rehab. And as I said above breathing excercises, realignment of posture and reactivating connections in the ‘sleeve’. It’s the thin muscle below your abs that connects your diaphragm and pelvic floor. Basically a shopping bag for all your internal organs.

Goodluck

Yes, my child is now two and I’m still not fully out of the woods but I’ve been on a long journey and have learned so very much. As the other person has said it really is time and expertise that’s going to get you through. Obviously if you have any pain, you should stop reading Mumsneyt and go see a doctor!

What I learned is it because I had a small, narrow body and quite a big baby, my weak deep core muscles were just stretched, a bit like a soggy hair bobble. So I was getting discomfort after eating because my core muscle were not really providing a strong framework for the rest of my organs and muscles. Sometimes you could see gas passing through my skin after eating cruciferous foods like cabbage.

There’s also a lot to learn about the pressure system and how the pelvic floor and your diaphragm are actually all connected. I can’t really do justice on this in a text post. It is best to speak to specialist women’s health physiotherapist. For me I found that a technique called hypopressive breathing worked as well as very small, deliberate, deep core exercises. You need to move your whole body and release any tightness existing in your pelvic floor which is actually common in C-section deliveries.

Unfortunately, the NHS had absolutely no clue how to help me, and I used a bit of my savings to seek out specialist women’s health Physio, who had experience in varied techniques and how to recover from diastasis recti and bloating in the postpartum period. It’s well worth the money. In the meantime, check out on Instagram / YouTubers called The Belle Method or Get Mom Strong

@sellotape12 hello, your post is exactly me and I'm so happy you've seen improvement. I am 16 months pp and have been seeing a physio for a month, with definite improvement however I still often get very bloated by the evening. I will keep going, but just wondering how long it took you to see a big improvement with the bloating as I'm getting discouraged. Also any insight into how you released your pelvic floor as I think I have this! Thanks

Hi everyone, I’ve been reading the above posts and have a lot of these issues! The NHS have also not been able to help me and I have been going to an osteopath.

I had infections after my section and the NHS thought these were creating the issues - but they weren’t. I was on strong painkillers, Dihydrocoedine and Naproxen but nothing helped. So I decided to go to an osteopath, it turns out my ab muscles are very weak and they had healed close to my section scar. So everytime I used my abs, they would be contracting around my scar, putting me in really bad pain. The osteopath has aligned my spine and helped me work on my posture and loosens my abs each time I go. But almost 6 months pp I am still in pain everyday. It’s especially worse on a morning. But by the end of the week after looking after my baby throughout the day on my own, the pain is horrendous. I know @LemonSwan and @sellotape12 you both mentioned a women’s physio specialising in pp health, how did you find her? I am Manchester based and would really like to find someone similar.

I also have the bloating issues so am definitely going to try the breathing and probiotics! Any advice or help would be very much appreciated. Thank you so much x

Hey eve, that sounds awful. Sorry you have had such a rough ride and nhs is not the best in this area. You are only 6 months pp so don’t panic yet even though that’s easy to say. I was in a mess at 6 months.

I believe my bowel intestinal issues were resolved more by fixing the corset muscles (the giant sleeve from diaphragm to pelvic floor which is like a shopping bag for your internal organs) than the abs. Although the abs will obviously be worked at the same time in all likelihood.

The person who fixed me is no where near Manchester but was a really old school Pilates instructor. Used traditional techniques and reformer combined. You might need to look at the scar and Abs as well. Perhaps massage or maybe nhs can offer some kind of separation if they have fused together. I’m not sure about that sorry.

Be careful when looking for Pilates instructors as it’s quite a fad now and not all the instructors are equal. A lot use it as a Instagram exercise now as opposed a physio strategy. Try to find someone as old as possible imo. Has practiced decades.

Goodluck

That sounds really tough, I’m sorry you’re going through this. That’s such an unusual case. Six months postpartum is actually relatively early in the grand scheme of things, so it does get better. I aggressively googled women’s health physiotherapists, and then I read the CV of the physiotherapist and wanted to ensure that they had had both clinical and research experience in and out of the UK. What I’ve learned on this journey is that physiotherapists in Spain, France, Australia and the Netherlands tend to get trained much more thoroughly than they do in the UK under the NHS. In fact, it’s an understatement.

You might have to travel a bit further afield if you can’t find anyone. But it’s absolutely worth it. It’s only after seeing a French physiotherapist that I learned I have got something called Abdominophrenic Dyssynergia. For me, it means the diaphragm will not return to its normal position, and instead is literally pushing everything beneath it outwards. I’m almost 2.5 years postpartum, and I still look four months pregnant. I dearly love the NHS, but there is no way that they would have found this.

So can you do some very hard Google searching or ask around for a women’s health physio? Just had a v quick look for you, and there is someone called Barbara Chesworth in Alderley edge who looks quite qualified.

Hi! Thank you for that, it’s made me feel alot more positive! I’m so sorry about the issues you had too, but so glad it was able to be sorted!

The massage idea is a really good one! The osteopath does sort of a mini masssge in our sessions, so I will definitely be asking about that when I find a specialist ☺️.

I have actually been looking in to Pilates and I really appreciate that advice about looking for someone who has taught Pilates for a number of years, cos you’re right it is a massive Instagram thing now.

Thank you so much again 🫶🏼

Hi!! Thank you for replying! It does seem to be unusual, I’d heard a lot about the muscle separation but not this. Since reading your reply I have been searching women’s physio who specialise in postpartum and have managed to find a couple - I will add Barbara to my list too, thank you so much for looking for me that’s so kind! I’m going to look deeper in to it too, to make sure they have experience because it’s so important isn’t it.

It makes so much sense that physiotherapists in other countries are more trained, because the NHS had no idea what was wrong with me. Gynos outcome was that I just don’t tolerate pain very well?! I’m so sorry that you have Abdominophrenic Dyssynergia, but so glad you have found someone who understands and hope she can continue to help you. I had never heard of that until now. These are things that should be talked about and understood!

Thank you again so much for your reply! I’m going to get an appt with one of those specialists soon and hopefully they will be able to help 🤞🏽🤞🏽

@sellotape12 hello, thanks for your responses on this. I have a great Spanish PT but she has never mentioned Abdominophrenic Dyssynergia,.can you tell me how you were diagnosed and also how/ if you are able to treat this?