After baby belly

[melh44]

So I have had two children I'm proud of my stretch marks , my loose skin and wider hips, my boobs are lower and I'm not bothered. I had two very large pregnancy's . First daughter I put on 5 stone. Second 51/2. Above my belly button my muscles have completely torn. Leaving me with skin that completely covers my belly bottom. I have to lift it to clean it. It's constantly infected and sore. Im a size 10 average bmi . I exercise and eat well. What are my options? Will the nhs pay for removal of this loose skin even after pregnancy? If not where do I go next? Help please. It's getting me down.

Above my belly button my muscles have completely torn. Leaving me with skin that completely covers my belly bottom

I don’t understand this OP. Do you mean that you have the ab separation? If so you can see a physio about this.

I saw a physio today as I have a bit of separation and I do have a bit of loose, saggy skin below my belly button. I’m a size 8 and didn’t put on much weight anywhere but my big bump (I didn’t weigh myself so don’t know how much I put on).

I’m hoping I can get somewhat back to normal with diet, exercise, drinking water and moisturising plus seeing physio.

How long is it since you had your youngest child.

I think you should speak to your GP about your options. If it’s genuinely causing issues other than just cosmetic then I would have thought there was a possibility of getting it sorted on the nhs but I don’t know.

@AliceRR how do you know if you have an separation ? Loose skin is deffinatly above my belly bottom . What does a physio do to help this? I spoke to my gp but he just basically said get on with it x

Could you draw a picture or post one similar from the Internet don't get what you mean

The midwife who delivered my baby pointed it out to me at the time jusy after I delivered the baby.

There is a way to check yourself. I think you sort of lie on your back with your knees bent and then lift your head and shoulders so your abs are engaged and then feel. There is advice online on how to do this. I tried it and I can’t actually feel them. Maybe see your GP as they’ll be able to tell you but when you say “torn” muscles I assumed maybe it was this.

The exercises are to gently rebuild your abs but you have to do it gently and gradually as if you put too much stress on your abs then it can make them bulge and get worse.

You know if you get up or something and your abs are not engaged? And your muscles “come”? Well basically you need to avoid that so build your ab strength without that

Hey OP I had ab superstation. My stomach muscles split in pregnancy. I saw a physio after and have since been discharged. Does you belly go into the shape of a rugby ball when you strain it? You can feel the ab separation, lie on your back with your knees up, slowly lift yourself to your knees, like a partial sit up. Right there if you put your finger in the centre of your belly above or below your belly button you can feel the separation, feels like a line that's separated. Mine is separated only around my belly button now, the rest has closed up. Physio gives you exercises to strengthen your stomach muscles. Although I think mine will never be the same again, and I have a bit of a jiggly belly now, with a slight overhang in my pre pregnancy jeans. Time to up my size in jeans I think because of this 😩 I'm a 8-10.

Separation**not superation