Postnatal check and stomach muscles.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Just had my 6 week post natal check. This literally consisted of "how are you feeling?" and "what are you contraceptive intentions?"

As nurse did not say otherwise I presume that I am ok to resume exercise, but I was wondering how do I check if my stomach muscles are ok to do situps/crunches?

Thanks...

After several years of teaching post natal ladies exercise I am not surprised that your stomach muscles did not get a mention. This is a common oversight. You should be able to check it yourself though, quite easily as follows: Lie down, legs bent, feet flat on the floor. Place two fingers pointing down at your belly button, knuckles towards your toes (twist your forearm a bit). Gently raise your head and shoulders off the floor and at the same time press in with your fingers. If your fingers meet resistance, then fine, you can resume sit ups but do take it easy, you're only 6 weeks postnatal.

If your fingers appear to sink into a 'ditch' you have a split in your linea alba, the ligament that runs from the sternum to the pelvic bone. Approx one in three women encounter this after pregnancy so its no big deal but it does mean you have to refrain from crunches until the two sides knit back together. If you do crunches with this condition you will certainly make things worse. You can ascertain the severity of the split and the length of it by repeating the 'fingers press' at different points up and down the middle of your tummy and seeing how many fingers width can fit into the 'ditch' I mentioned.

You can help the recovery of this condition by holding your tummy in and engaging your core muscles as often as possible. Doing this will also help protect your lower back which is usually more prone to injury as the abdominal weakness causes as muscular imbalance.

Good luck, tummy in and be patient - it will get better!

Thanks very much for the fantastic answer! As soon as I don't have a baby sleeping on me I shall check myself :-)

My stomach muscles had completely separated after DS2 (he was a 10lb 1oz bloater though!) and I was sent for physio pretty quickly after having him. Infact I think they decided that while was still in hospital?

I've just bought Julie Tupler Lose your Mummy Tummy. Great book explains that crunches done incorrectly do more damage. My tummy has always stuck out and now I look pregnant. The points raised by officewidow are the Julie Tupler technique.

I had c-sections and not once did anyone mention excercise which is unbelievable in this age!

6 week check is a joke! Mentally I was in pieces and physically ok but there was no physical checks at all.

Thanks for the book reference Have just ordered it...

I appear to have a 2-finger wide gap - is that bad or good?

I think 2 fingers is not too bad, but can be brought in by using the tupler method. I had an 8 finger gap and have successfully brought it down to around 2 fingers using this method. you can look at Julie Tuplers website www.maternalfitness.com/diastasis.html

I've been seeing a physio for spd and asked her about this too. She said it is safe to do crunches (in the context of pilates) so long as you have locked in your transverse abdominus muscle beforehand - the one that goes across the bottom of your tummy like a belt.