Diastasis recti any positive stories please?

[Ineedanewbody]

I've recently had DC2 and know it's early days recovery wise but my poor body feels ruined. DD was massive and I was huge in the pregnancy, as a result I have been left with a 5 finger gap in my abdominal muscles, a hernia & very saggy skin on my stomach.

I didn't have a thing like this with DS was recovered quite quickly. I've see a women's health physio s X they've taped me and given me exercises to do and I wondered what others experiences are.

DS was 11lbs and I had 6 fingers of separation. I had to wear a support around my middle for around 3 months and I took up Pilates, on the advise of the physio. He was my first and I kept up the Pilates til DD1 was born. She was 9lbs and I only had 2 fingers separation which is standard. Hospital physio put it down to Pilates.

Having said that DD2 was 9lbs 10 and I didn't get checked after her and hurt my back when she was about 6 weeks old which I think was due to a weakness in my core. A year later physio checked and I still had 1.5 fingers separation. Currently expecting my 4th and final baby and defo have issues due to diastis recti (can see it in my bump, back hurting already etc). Not much I can do while pregnant but am planning some private Pilates/physio sessions once baby is out and will be doing Pilates for the rest of my life to keep my core strong.

Sorry, hit send too soon! Basically you will be fine but defo do Pilates. Physio exercises are great but I found it hard to keep them up at home but going to a class really focused me.

Thanks. I agree I think it will be hard for me to keep the exercises up longer term so I think the Pilates class are just what I'll need.

It's good to hear you managed to reduce the gap. I still look very pregnant, especially at the end if the day and it's rather depressing!

Pilates (with a teacher experienced in this are) is your best bet. You need to strengthen the deep core muscles first. Avoid sit ups/crunches/twisting movements. You can definitely reduce the gap with the right exercises.

Katy Bowman's book about DR is amazing. As is her website, Nutritious Movement.

Without a doubt, the best thing I did for my DR was buy this - the Mutu sustem. Brilliant, and she was trained by Katy.

I developed this after DC2. The midwife who noticed it on day 5 postpartum was awful, made me feel terrible about it, but its improved massively with physio (much better than I thought it would).

I was referred quickly and saw a physio on three occasions. Very basic core exercises/stretches to begin with, leading to harder ones over time as I improved.
I was sceptical but I look and feel much better 6 months postpartum and the backache has gone. I just made sure I did the stretches a few times each day.

Avoid sit ups, crunches or anything twisty as mentioned above.

I've recently been diagnosed with mild to moderate DR at over 30 weeks pregnant. Do any of you have experience of how your mode of delivery affected your DR? I am leaning towards requesting a section for this and other reasons but I'm not sure. Or do you feel your DR post natally was completely unrelated to whether you pushed or had section?

I don't think the delivery affects DR really - if anything I'd have thought a Caesarian was more likely to damage/worsen your abdominal muscles.

I had 4 fingers separation, did postnatal pilates with an exprerienced teacher and it had gone to nothing by about 3 months. It is usually fixable!

Mine was unrelated to the delivery. I was in a lot of pain in the pregnancy with the DR and could literally feel my stomach tearing. I went to the GP about it who told me it was important to keep using the abdominal muscles which actually was the completely wrong advice and probably made it worse.

I feel encouraged by the stories here. I actually have no sensation in the skin on my sympathy. I guess where it's been stretched beyond all reasonableness it's lost sensation. I feel quite shocked at it all as I had nothing like this with DS.

Yes I had this after DC2 so obviously it was worse by DC4.
The first physio I saw this time referred me to the hospital physio as it was too wide for her deal with. She gave me a leaflet with some exercises on (nothing major just tensing etc really) which I did every day as often as I remembered, usually whilst driving, and I was very careful getting out of bed (roll on to side etc) by the time I had my appointment at the hospital I only had a 1cm gap.
But the physio said I had to keep the exercises up, it's a life long thing and I do notice if I forget for a few weeks I do develop a bit of a pouch.
On the plus side, doing the exercises religiously strengthens your pelvic floor so good to do anyway! as I learnt to my cost at running club last week

I had a 5 finger DR after having my twins. Yes as someone else mentioned earlier the midwife also made me feel awful!

I was referred for some exercises but nothing happened and I was flat out in baby hell so didn't follow up. I used the Julie Tupler book (lose your mummy tummy) and followed the easier exercises in there. Also was very careful about the rolling out of bed sideways, no sit ups etc. It closed up pretty well considering I didn't intensely do the exercises. I seem to remember it was down to to about 1.5 fingers after a year or so. There is no gap now (but this is 10yrs on). I still do some of the exercises.

Oh and for mine - just the size of my bump did the damage (11.1lbs of babies).

I had a 6 finger gap and got it down to 1 with the mutu exercises. I didn't do the eating thing, but just the exercises and barefoot shoes. Xx

Hi I have been searching for a long time on this subject so I know there is not much information available to sufferers. So I would like to share to experience and hope it helps someone.
I had 3 c sections, the first 2 emergencies and the 3rd planned. During the second the surgeon said the amount of scar tissue meant it was very difficult to get to the baby and they had to remove a lot of tissue. To make matters worse, both myself and the baby had sepsis so recovery was extremely difficult. Anyway, this caused my stomach muscles to deteriorate and I had a pretty bad diastasis recti. I tried light exercise but I felt a painful pulling so stopped.
Three years later, to our surprise, I was pregnant again and I was terrified to think how could my stomach hold the weight of another baby. My GP had no advice and so I tried physio therapy but again find the advice useless in my situation. As my belly grew I found walking increasingly painful and at 8-9 months the BHicks was unbearable. So the last 3 months I spent in a wheelchair.
After having my beautiful baby i could insistently walk with no issues and the back pain had gone. But I was left with a huge, hard, painful bulge. I saw 3 different doctors to express my concern but they all thought my concern was superficial. Then I saw a consultant during a routine check up who felt the muscle gap and agree the size was extreme and couldn't be left like this. She referred me to a surgeon after 12 months recovery from pregnancy. Once again the surgeon was in no doubt the gap was far too big and very high so surgery was my only option. This was a relief to hear and yet a difficult decision to make. I could not lift anything for at least 6 weeks, including my daughter, and recovery would be much hard than a c section as I would need a vertical incision.
I could see no alternative as I could feel the gap getting higher and bladder control was ridiculous so I went for it.
I am now 3 weeks post surgery. The damage was a lot worse than they thought and a second hernia was found above my belly button. I ended up with mesh to cover the gap as my muscles were too weak to repair and a small amount of excess skin was removed. Recovery has been extremely painful but manageable. I had seromia under the incision (build up of fluid) which made things harder again but think I'm over that now and it's getting easier every day. The hard bulge is gone which is amazing but it's still swollen so difficult to know what it will look like. I can't wear a bikini due to the huge scar but that doesn't bother me. So far so good.
Hope that helps someone. If you have any questions please feel free.