I remember Tyler kissing me as he took our new born son, Benjamin, to have his very first bath. I had just had him two hours before and we spent those two hours doing skin-to-skin and nursing. I was starving and exhausted.
My sweet nurse was moving me into my recovery room. She cleared her throat and timidly said, "I don't know if you know, but it seems that you have developed a diastasis recti split. Have you heard of that? It's when your stomach muscles separate during pregnancy. You might want to look up exercises on how to fix it."
I am so thankful to that nurse for telling me. I would have never known if she hadn't said something, and then I would be so confused as to why my "mommy pouch" wasn't going away.
I know a lot of moms work so hard to lose all the weight and do all the sit-ups, but still have a bulge or pouch on their belly. But most of them don't know that they have diastasis recti, and that doing regular and intense ab work outs like sit-ups actually make it worse.
**It happens most often in moms who carry twins, moms with large babies, or moms who were on the smaller side pre-pregnancy. I did not have this with my first baby, only my second!
How do you know if you have Diastasis Recti?
Lie flat on your back with your knees up.
Lift your head up as if looking at your belly button, so that your stomach muscles tighten.
Place a few fingers right above your belly button and gently press down. If you have Diastasis Recti, you will feel a wide gap and be able to stick a few fingers in there.
(If you're still confused, watch this video here)
When I first checked my split, it was two and a half fingers wide. (One woman I talked to said she could fit her fist in her gap!) Now, one year postpartum, I am down to one tight finger space. I'll admit, I haven't been as diligent on my exercises as I should have. But finding time or energy after chasing around two kids under two is rare. But this year is my goal to fix it completely.
The picture above is me today. I never took a "before" picture because I was so embarrassed about my "mommy pouch" that I didn't want to see it. But it used to look way worse than this. Like I said, my split is a lot smaller now. It's still there, and I still have a long way to go. But this is so much
better than it used to be.
By the way, you CAN fix it without surgery. (And without expensive magic wraps that only give you temporary results. But that's another story for another post!) How? Simple core workouts that don't put intense strain on your abs. Instead, do work outs that are going to pull those muscles back together.
I found a ton of great and simple work outs that fix Diastasis Recti on Pinterest, and on YouTube. The key is to do them often and DON'T attempt to do sit ups or anything like that until your split has healed. I like to follow this video Here.
If you have any questions please don't be afraid to ask your doctor!!
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