Fixing Separated Abdominal Muscles

Diastasis Recti - Separated Abdominal Muscles

As your belly grows and extends to accommodate your growing baby, your muscles get stretched to new heights - or widths in this case.

There are two large sheets of muscle on your abdomen that cover your internal organs, known as the Recti muscles. They run from the rib cage, down to the pubic bone, covering the entire belly.

They meet in the middle of the abdomen, right in line with the navel. In order to allow your belly to keep growing, these muscles separate, especially as you get toward the end of your pregnancy.

The separation is called diastasis recti and it is neither a tear nor a hernia. It is just a thinning and widening of the connective tissue between the two sheets of muscle.

The separation isn't necessarily painful, which is why most women don't even know it has happened until after the baby is born. Some women do have a sensation of uncomfortable stretching of their abdomen at the end of their pregnancy, like a splitting feeling, which usually eases off within a few days.

If you give birth to your baby by cesarean section, the doctor will have to pull these muscles apart to get to the uterus in order to make the cut and get the baby out. This can exacerbate muscle separation in the abdomen.

Of course, if the baby is premature and quite small, muscle separation may be something you only hear about and never experience.

How To Tell If Your Muscles Have Separated

One way to tell if you have muscle separation in the abdomen is to lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor, and lift your head, as if you are doing a little crunch.

This movement tenses the abdominals and the soft, spongy space between them is emphasized. This space measures about one to five centimeters in width in a vertical line both above and below the navel. Your doctor will likely check the abdominal separation shortly after you give birth or at your six week checkup.

You can check the separation yourself by lying flat on the floor with your knees bent, head on the floor as well (without a pillow) and tucking your chin into your chest, lift your head forward.

While you are in this position, press your fingers into the area right around the belly button vertically. You are feeling for that gap we talked about, or for a soft bulge. If you can move your fingers side to side more than two fingers' width, you have diastasis recti.

The really good news is that you can help your muscles rejoin by doing specific exercises. However, before you begin any kind of exercise, be sure to check in with your physician to ensure you're okay to go.