Post C Section diastasis recti, weird bulge

[3ormorecharacters]

I had a C Section a week ago. The next day when I stood up and got dressed I noticed a weird bulge in my stomach to the left of my belly button. I asked the midwife who was a little perplexed and got a few other people to look, including an Obs & Gynae doctor and then consultant. They all had a poke and agreed that the bulge is some bowel coming through where the stomach muscles have been separated. They said it should resolve naturally over the next few weeks and only to worry if it gets painful and/or is still there when I lie down (currently it disappears when I lie down). They referred me to physio who measured the gap and said it should resolve by my 6-8 week check up and gave me a booklet about diastasis recti and general dos and don'ts.

I'm only a week on so unsurprisingly the bulge is still there. It's slightly uncomfortable but not exactly painful (although there's also a lot of bruising on that side so hard to tell what's what). I just find it really horrible to look at and I'm having to live in pyjamas and oversized tops. I'm also a bit worried that although none of the medics seemed very concerned by it, it also didnt seem like something they were particularly familiar with. Has anyone had something similar? Did it just fix itself?

Hi congratulations on your new baby. I would give it time for the swelling to go down first. You have been cut through your abdominal muscles so there is a lot of swelling that needs to go down and healing that needs to take place. I will give it about 8-12 weeks and after that chat to doctor and then see a physio that specialises in women gynae.
I was convince I had it after my third section and got two different Physio's to check it out and they said nothing there. Give yourself time and don't be doing sit ups or push ups as they might make it worse. You're only a week on so for now focus on nourishing yourself and your baby.

To update on this, a couple of weeks on and the bulge is still there, although the general swelling and bruising has gone down. The bulge is to the left of my belly button and is quite large, making my stomach very lopsided.

I saw the midwife today for my discharge appointment and she said it looks like a hernia. No one at the hospital used this term, though as they said it's bowel I guess that's what they meant. The midwife I saw today recommended seeing my GP before the 6-8 week check. I sent a message to my GP surgery explaining the situation and they've made me an appointment with a physio in a couple of weeks time.

However I'm still a little confused and concerned. I can't work out from my Googling how common this is with a diastasis recti. I'm a little worried that some of the medics I've seen haven't really understood the problem as it's not apparent if I'm examined lying down or if they haven't looked at the right angle. Has anyone else had a hernia with diastasis recti and did it resolve itself?

It is still very early days for you so it though. See your GP and if they can recommend a physio. There is still lots of swelling around the area and you're not even four weeks postpartum. Do you have any other symptoms that you're worried about?

To update for anyone in a similar position in the future, I've now been referred by my GP and (thanks to private healthcare) seen by a consultant. It is indeed an incisional hernia caused by the C Section and will require surgery to fix. We'll need to wait another few months for the C Section scarring to go down. The annoying thing is that if the doctors had spotted / admitted it in the first place rather than palming me off with physio then it could have been fixed a lot more easily and I wouldn't be facing another 6 weeks of being unable to lift my toddler. Diasatis recti does not cause bowel to poke through!