Diastastis Recti after C-section

[Antia88]

Hello!
I'm 36 years old and currently 31 weeks pregnant with my first baby (through IVF). Yesterday I went to see the Head of Midwifery for a routine check in the hospital and she had one quick look at my belly and told me that she is 100 percent sure that I will have diastasis recti post partum...

Because the birth of my baby will have to be through a planned C-section, she said that I will have the additional issue of having to wait at least 6 weeks before I can start physiotherapy, so apparently that does not work in my favour... She also said that those DR belts that you can buy online are useless.

I googled some pictures of DR later, because I had never heard of it before and none of my mom friends had ever mentioned it, and the pictures that came up looked really extreme. I feel a bit down about it and was wondering if anyone can give me some good advice of how they dealt with DR after a C-section?
Thank you :)

Mine just seemed to sort itself out. It was a proper hand's breadth DR from mid-pregnancy. I tried to keep good posture and use whatever tattered remnants of my core survived. It fully resolved and did not recur with a second twin pregnancy.

Some midwives are absolute scare-mongerers. 60% of women have a degree of DR after birth. In many cases it gets better on its own.

I didn't get round to seeing a (private) physio until about 18 months after my c section and the exercises she gave me fixed it (4 cm separation) in a few weeks.

Chances are no one's mentioned it because it hasn't been a very big deal for them.

Honestly I wouldn't worry. Like others have said it might get fixed on its own or you may need some physio. I doubt you'll be wanting to do physio straightaway anyway.

It does take a bit of time to get back to looking somewhere near where you started pre-PG

I have quite severe diastasis recti after a twin pregnancy BUT hopefully a message of optimism.

I had DR after my first singleton pregnancy and it never fully resolved - still had 1cm gap. I gave birth to my twins when my first was just two so not a huge gap in between. I carried them to 40 weeks and I'm quite a small frame so my belly was HUGE and my stomach muscles just completely separated. The OB who did my c-section was like "somebody get this lady a compression garment immediately her insides are falling out" (my paraphrase there, she was actually lovely).

I was so hoping for a natural birth too so having a c-section was just awful. My recovery wasn't quick or easy either.

Now my twins are 14 months. I still had DR, about a three-finger gap. However I've been exercising about three times a week and including core workouts and my stomach is about 80% back to being flat. It's not what it was before (and my skin is so stretch marked I'll never bare my stomach in public again). But I look like a fit, slim woman. I'm 36 btw so it's not like I have a large advantage of youth!

In the evenings, when all my muscles are a bit tired, my stomach gets a little rounder but I'm optimistic that with continued exercise it'll firm up more.

I saw a specialist women's physio during and after the pregnancy and she gave me exercises to do but said the research is quite mixed and it really looks like DR instance and recover is mostly just genetic. But having a strong core will always help. If one really puts the effort in and bulks up the sixpack it'll reduce the gap slightly just due to muscle volume.

I am considering getting surgery to fix it in a year or two but I'm really on the fence. All in all I feel strong and healthy and have no back pain or issues, and my stomach looks almost flat again.

I hope that's a helpful perspective. Twins are not for the faint hearted! I bet you're doing an amazing job 🩷