During the later stages of pregnancy there are a number of factors that increase the intra-abdominal pressure within your abdomen such as:
- progressive uterus growth
- maternal body changes
- changing postures that mothers adapt to
- reduced strength and tension in the abdominal muscles
There is a piece of connective tissue between your ‘6 pack’ rectus abdominis muscles at the front which joins them together. As you get bigger and the intra-abdominal pressure increase and abdominal muscles become compromised the linea alba stretches and becomes weaker and thinner (think about pulling on a piece of dough from both sides and as it stretches out and becomes weaker in the middle).
DIASTASIS RECTI
After giving birth with about 60% of mums this linea alba tightens and becomes strong again and the gap between the muscles closes by 8 weeks. With about 40% of mums unfortunately this does not happen and they can have a linea alba which is still weak and stretched and a gap between the muscles.
When some mums feel that they still look pregnant months down the line and still have a ‘paunch’ or ‘mummy tummy’ often it is because of this Diastasis Recti.
What can I do about it when pregnant?
- By working on strengthening the pelvic floor muscles and deep abdominal muscles you can reduce the extent of the separation (our program shows you how to do this)
- Avoiding any movements or exercises that cause a doming, ridging, coning of your stomach – see exercises to avoid during pregnancy
- When getting up from mat, bed, sofa always roll onto your side first
How can I resolve it after pregnancy?
By working on the core muscle strength which will then create more tension again in the linea alba connective tissue and when the muscles are stronger and the connective tissue has more tension it gives a ‘corseting’ and ‘pulling back effect’ to your tummy.
We recommend checking out our ‘Postpartum Recovery Program’ before giving birth to get yourself familar with what you can do to ease your recovery. This Program contains all the info you need to make your Recovery as problem free as possible as well as contains Recovery Movement exercises and Core Muscle Reactivation Exercises.
This Recovery Program will form the base of then our next Programs which then start challenging the core muscles with movement to ‘Get You Back To Feeling Like YOU again’ as well as flatten your tummy.
If you subscribed all these Programs are readily available to you. Otherwise you can buy them individually in this Portal.
