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I was ready to pop in my third trimester, and as I hooked my elbow across my knee, pulling myself into a spinal twist, I felt a sharp and fiery pain down the midline of my stomach. I winced and released the pose, and the pain went away, but unfortunately, the damage was already done. After I had my baby, I was diagnosed with a 4-finger diastasis recti gap.
Nine months after I had my baby, I went to see a pelvic floor physiotherapist because my "mummy tummy" made me look five months pregnant. She explained that diastasis recti is a gap between the ab muscles of more than 2.7 cm or two fingers. This gap can lead to abdominal bulging, back pain, urinary incontinence (peeing a little when you sneeze or jump). It's very common after pregnancy. One study showed that up to 53% of women have diastasis recti after having their baby (1).
My pelvic floor physiotherapist recommended some healing exercises, gave me exercises to avoid as well as recommended a Belly Bandit Belly Wrap to help bring the muscles together and to provide support and protection while my muscles were healing.
Fast forward a few months, and I was able to successfully heal my gap without surgery.
The five things I did to heal my gap were:
I felt so passionate about these steps that I took training to become a fitness instructor, and started a YouTube Channel, Pregnancy and Postpartum TV. My day job was as a registered dietitian in diabetes and weight management. Many of the moms I worked with wanted to get back to their exercise routine, but there weren't exercises that were diastasis recti safe where they could also get a good workout. To help them, I created a playlist of postpartum workouts on my channel that are safe and effective. I wanted moms to be able to work towards their health or weight management goals while healing and keeping their core safe.
During my next pregnancy, with more knowledge of what to avoid, such as leveraged twists, I was able to protect my core and limit my diastasis recti gap to 3-fingers. The Upsie Belly not only protected my core during pregnancy but helped me feel more comfortable exercising and reduced my back pain. After pregnancy, I was very quickly able to heal my diastasis recti gap again using the same five steps.
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Jessica Pumple's Award-Winning YouTube channel is Pregnancy and Postpartum TV, where you will find pre and postnatal yoga and fitness, diastasis recti healing, and fun toy surprise kid workout videos. As a registered dietitian, certified diabetes, and bariatric educator, she also supports moms with gestational diabetes and weight loss.
References:
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