Ah, motherhood. It changes us in sooo many ways, doesn’t it?

Our hearts grow by what seems like a thousandfold, plus some more.

Unlimited time for our own hobbies and interests is a thing of the past.

We now say things like “Because I said so” and “I’m just gonna run to the potty” (Even when we aren’t in the presence of our children. Yeah, we’ve all been there!)

But of course, one of the biggest changes that we see and feel is in our bodies. And rightfully so- that body just became a house for a tiny human! Obviously, some things just aren’t going to be the same.

That being said- there are a few common issues that many women experience after giving birth, and think they just need to live with for the rest of their life. Ex: peeing a little when you sneeze. (Big important FYI here: that does not need to be something you live with. Get to a PT that specializes in pelvic floor health pronto!)

Another common, but lesser known condition is diastasis recti. You may not have heard the name, but you’ve seen its trademark- the “mom pooch” / “mummy tummy”/ “I’ve lost all my baby weight WHY do I still look pregnant??” look.

If this is you, you might be one of the 2/3 of women that have a diastasis after giving birth.

That’s right- 2/3. This condition is incredibly widespread yet woefully misunderstood. But we’re about to change that!

Diastasis Recti (DR) is defined as an unnatural distance of the right and/or left halves of the rectus abdominus from the midline. The word “unnatural” is important here, because some separation is normal. The rectus is a muscle that is always split in two by the linea alba (connective tissue), which differs in size among individuals. Also, it’s not unusual to have a larger gap here immediately after giving birth. A separation won’t be diagnosed as DR until after about 8 weeks postpartum.

So how does it happen?

The basic explanation is that there’s too much outward pressure pushing on the linea alba ( that connective tissue between both halves of the rectus abdominus). A big bouncing baby can definitely be the source of that pressure, but so can weightlifting, or just poor posture.

It is largely an issue for moms, but women who have never been pregnant can have DR too- even men! Fact is, the gap between your abdominal muscles isn’t the problem- it’s just a symptom.

How Can I Tell If I Have It?

I first realized that something in my core was off a few months after having my first baby boy. I was losing baby weight and psyched to be getting back into exercise. Naturally I wanted to focus on toning my stomach, trying to flatten that baby out! So bring on the crunches and planks, right?

Nooooo. Nope. This is one of the worst things you can do when you have diastasis. Check out this article for more info.

When I was doing planks (which I LOVED), I noticed that my belly would hang down in the middle.

It was bad, guys. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it wasn’t supposed to look like that.

Luckily, by that point in my parenting career I was already a master googler-of-all-the-things. I did an obscene amount of research while I was pregnant and it never went away. Everywhere I looked, I saw diastasis recti. After completing a quick self-test ( two options here and here, it was pretty clear that DR was the answer. But now I had a hundred more questions!

So let me break down some of the main signs of diastasis recti you can look out for:

+Belly bulge

+Low back pain

+Pelvic pain or pelvic floor dysfunction

+Poor posture

+Bloating or other digestive symptoms

+Urinary incontinence

+Hernia, in more severe cases

If you can identify with any of these (quite likely more than one!), check out the links above and do a self-test.

I have watched tons of different DR testing how-to videos, and can assure you that the majority of them follow the same process. How different trainers advise that you fix the problem is where you’ll see drastic differences.

My journey through healing my diastasis (spoiler alert, it ain’t all the way there yet) is a whole story of it’s own! I’ll save that for part 2- click here to keep reading. I’ll go into the programs I’ve tried, some important key facts I’ve learned, and give you links to some super necessary resources.

Do you have DR? What has your healing journey been like? I love to hear your stories, drop a comment below or on my Facebook page.