Postpartum Body Changes: Is Your Mummy Tummy Diastasis Recti?

Diastasis recti affects 60% of postpartum women. Here’s how to fix your mummy tummy or the abdominal gap.

It usually takes over 9 months to lose the weight you gained during pregnancy and get back to your pre-pregnancy body. However, a belly bulge that persists long after your baby is born can also be a sign of diastasis recti. Diastasis Recti is a common condition affecting 60 per cent of postpartum women, yet it is postpartum body issue that is rarely spoken about. Read on to know what diastasis recti is and how to fix it.

Dr. Prity Maniar Dal, founder of The Womb Story, tells us all we need to know about diastasis recti, including the factors leading to it.

What causesDiastasis Recti?

Diastasis Recti is also called the ‘Mummy tummy’ or the abdominal gap, that is common during postpartum. It is the separation of the Recti muscles or abdominal muscles caused by weakening, thinning of the elastic band or connective tissue that holds the right and the left recti muscle in the centre, called the linea alba.

This is a common condition for most women during pregnancy and postpartum. This gap generally closes by 10-12 weeks naturally. But for some, this linea alba or connective tissue is not able to pull the muscles back together and hence the gap remains, which gives not only an appearance of a pregnant belly but also affects the strength of the back and pelvic floor muscles as they are all interconnected through fascia. Some other symptoms that women may see or feel, is lower back pain, pelvic floor issues or urinary incontinence that is, when you are sneezing or laughing a few drops of urine tends to leak.

Postpartum related issues are becoming more common now, why so?

Be it physical, mental or emotional our generation experiences it more, perhaps due to the sedentary lifestyle that we have now, or it could be that the earlier generations like our grandparents or parents focused on having the right nutrition rather than focusing on supplements.

When we talk about nutrition, let us talk in terms of movement nutrition. Our main movement and posture being our macronutrients and the corrective exercises or the supplements, vitamins and minerals being the micronutrients. Due to our sedentary lifestyle our macronutrients go missing at times which we then try to cover up with supplements. Our posture or our macronutrients plays a major role here when it comes to factors leading to diastasis, like the way we hold our body and belly during pregnancy, the kind of exercises we do during pregnancy, how well our back is supported during pregnancy and postpartum, and how strong or weak our pelvic floor is. We tend to rock our pelvis forward to be able to hold the weight of the growing belly, and postpartum that kind of becomes our posture subconsciously. So, good posture and the right kind of exercises are essential during postpartum.

How can we fix Diastasis Recti?

Corrective exercises are now easily available for diastasis recti, in comparison to abdominal surgery which was the only option a couple of years ago. It is crucial to get yourself accessed by a professional to see if you have diastasis before you start with your exercise routine as the course of exercise completely changes if you have it.

There are specific corrective exercises that have to be done before you do core exercises, to close the gap as these work on the transverse abdominis muscle which are the deep core muscles and then focus on strengthening the outer core muscles, which is important if you have Diastasis Recti. For example Suryanamaskars, planks, crunches, jumping jacks, burpees, which you would generally do to get rid of the postpartum belly should be avoided if you have Diastasis. These core exercises could put pressure on the core muscles and the condition may get worse.

Katie Bowman, very rightly says in her book: “You are how you move.”

So, let us first focus more on the right movement or diet for ourselves rather than looking for the right kind of supplements.