Abdominal Separation after Pregnancy

How Strange

I had my daughter almost a year ago and between one thing and another I never got my tummy checked by a physio for abdominal separation. I'm just under 9 stone, 5ft 2 so I'm the right weight for my height but there is a little paunch on the tummy area. I did a test myself last night and I reckon the gap is 3 fingers wide.

I know you can't isolate one area for toning up but does anyone have any exercise recommendations for closing the gap a year after pregnancy?

Any tips or examples of other people's experiences would be greatly appreciated.

runawaybishop

You cant spot reduce fat but you can definitely target specific muscles. Unfortunately diastasis rectus abdominus needs to be assessed by a professional, so you will need to verify if this is what you have. There are certain exercises that will assist with it but there are also exercises that will be detrimental. Your GP should help you, or at least refer you to an appropriate physio.

Jerrica

Ideally speak to a physio with perinatal experience, all the Dublin maternity hospitals have physio departments and I'd imagine all national maternity hospitals have them too. They'll be most familiar with pregnancy specific physiological changes like abdominal separation (it's very common, up to 50% of women experience it apparently. I'm 6 months pregnant now and judging by the basketball shaped bulge in my belly it wouldn't surprise me if I succumbed too

runawaybishop

Its very common and people are usually given some pelvic floor exercises for both during and after pregnancy which assist with this (and also with the delivery). That said though you can cause damage if you do the wrong exercises so you really need to see a professional first.

Jerrica

runawaybishop wrote: »

Its very common and people are usually given some pelvic floor exercises for both during and after pregnancy which assist with this (and also with the delivery). That said though you can cause damage if you do the wrong exercises so you really need to see a professional first.

Only if you go to an antenatal class with a physio or a pregnancy yoga or a pilates class though - if you don't actively go out and avail of all these things you're really left to your own devices. Pregnant women are told it's good to exercise, but you really have to go out and find out the details for yourself like not lying on your back after 16 weeks or not doing abdominal compressions. Trust me, it's not until you get a swollen belly that you really realise how much your centre of gravity shifts and the impact those pelvic floor exercises will have. It's a whole new word of physiological awareness!!

Alf Veedersane

Jerrica wrote: »

Pregnant women are told it's good to exercise, but you really have to go out and find out the details for yourself like not lying on your back after 16 weeks or not doing abdominal compressions.

They're also told to eat healthily and then given a pamphlet with a picture of the food pyramid front row centre.

Marvellous.

runawaybishop

Jerrica wrote: »

Only if you go to an antenatal class with a physio or a pregnancy yoga or a pilates class though - if you don't actively go out and avail of all these things you're really left to your own devices. Pregnant women are told it's good to exercise, but you really have to go out and find out the details for yourself like not lying on your back after 16 weeks or not doing abdominal compressions. Trust me, it's not until you get a swollen belly that you really realise how much your centre of gravity shifts and the impact those pelvic floor exercises will have. It's a whole new word of physiological awareness!!

I agree but i I think mileage varies hugely from place to place with regards to information provided to expectant mothers.

Jerrica

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

They're also told to eat healthily and then given a pamphlet with a picture of the food pyramid front row centre.

Marvellous.

It's not ideal! The only thing I would say though is that - certainly in my own experience and it seems pretty common - your taste buds are so flipping out of whack that a food-pyramid based diet would be a marked improvement on what the body can crave. It's mental. I have days of eating nothing but fruit, days of eating nothing but poached eggs on soda farls and days of eating nothing but cereals. The sight of beef makes me ill Pre-pregnancy I could eat bowls of spinach, now you couldn't pay me enough to eat it. A girl in my pregnancy yoga class ate spinach fresh out of the bag and it turned out she was craving it through an iron deficiency. The body is remarkably good at extracting whatever it can from what little you eat and using it as efficiently as possible for pregnancy, so as long as you're eating reasonably ok, that's enough.

Jerrica

runawaybishop wrote: »

I agree but i I think mileage varies hugely from place to place with regards to information provided to expectant mothers.

Can you give examples? I'm genuinely curious!

runawaybishop

Jerrica wrote: »

Can you give examples? I'm genuinely curious!

First kid got 0 advice on diet or exercise, second kid got a little more but it was very general, after the birth some pelvic floor exercises were recommended. I've a friend who was given a whole raft of stuff to do, in comparison. my wife had severe SPD in the second pregnancy though so that may be why we got even the small advice we did.

Jerrica

runawaybishop wrote: »

First kid got 0 advice on diet or exercise, second kid got a little more but it was very general, after the birth some pelvic floor exercises were recommended. I've a friend who was given a whole raft of stuff to do, in comparison. my wife had severe SPD in the second pregnancy though so that may be why we got even the small advice we did.

I'm quickly learning that maternity services vary wildly, both within the same hospital (some midwives are beyond helpful with info, others wouldn't tell you the time of day for the bother it would cause them) and between hospitals. Personally I'm finding I have to do a lot of research on my own, and it's tough because it's hard to navigate what sources are more reliable than others. SPD must have been extremely tough on your wife, there's a fair few ladies on the pregnancy forum who talk about it and it's not at all fun.