Photo credit: iStock. Almost 1 year postpartum, mom of twins and two others. Jenny Des Jarlais. Related Slideshows. Baby poop: A visual guide. Is it safe? Answers to your top breastfeeding worries. Miracles: Preemie success stories. Cranky baby, I love you. Special delivery: The moments of birth. Featured video. Place your hand palm down over your belly, with your fingers pointing toward your toes. Press your fingers gently into your navel area then slowly lift your head, drawing your chin to your chest.
This causes your rectus abdominis to contract. If you feel a gap of at least two finger widths between the muscles as they contract, you have a diastasis. A gap as wide as four or five fingers is considered severe. Repeat the procedure below and above your belly button because the separation may be wider in different places.
Once the connective tissue gets stretched out, it can be difficult to rebuild your core strength and bring your muscles back together. Doing traditional crunches can make your condition worse.
They tend to make those muscles tighter, pushing them further apart and stretching the connective tissue even more so that it grows thinner and weaker. You can often correct a diastasis with specific exercises, but you'll need guidance from a physical therapist.
See our article on postpartum abdominal rehab for more information on how to find one and how to do the diastasis exercises. They can also help women who still look pregnant and have trouble strengthening their core, even if they don't technically have a diastasis recti.
If your diastasis is severe, and you don't plan to get pregnant again, surgery may be an option, especially if you've done all you can with physical therapy but are still struggling with a weak core.
Surgery to repair a diastasis recti involves stitching the abdominal wall muscles back together along the midline. In some cases, a surgeon may be able to do the procedure laparoscopically using a tiny camera and instruments inserted through small incisions. Severe diastases require open abdominal surgery through a larger incision. Unfortunately, this is considered a cosmetic procedure, so it's generally not covered by insurance.
By the way, if you do plan to have more children, it's worth the effort to repair a diastasis with physical therapy not surgery to strengthen your core before your next pregnancy. It may recur, but it's likely to be less severe. A diastasis recti can lead to health complications including chronic low back pain , urinary incontinence , constipation , pain during sex , and pelvic or hip pain. If you have any of these symptoms in the months after giving birth, they may be due in part to a diastasis recti.
If you can, it's a good idea to begin doing exercises to strengthen your core before you become pregnant. Once you're pregnant, you can continue some of them through the first trimester. But even gentle core strengthening is largely ineffective once your belly gets big.
In any case, it's likely that staying active can help. Some studies show that women who exercised regularly during pregnancy were less likely to end up with a diastasis recti. With proper care, you can close a diastasis even years after you delivered your last baby. How long it takes to heal depends on the severity of your diastasis the distance between the separated abdominal muscles and the damage to the stretched connective tissue as well as your commitment to fixing the problem.
BabyCenter's editorial team is committed to providing the most helpful and trustworthy pregnancy and parenting information in the world. Right after delivery you'll already be about 12 pounds lighter.
You'll lose the amount your baby weighed usually 7 or 8 pounds , about a pound of placenta, and another few pounds of blood and amniotic fluid. You probably won't return to your pre-pregnancy weight for some time, but you'll continue to lose weight during the postpartum period as your body eliminates all the extra water your cells retained during pregnancy, along with fluid from the extra blood you had in your pregnant body.
By the end of the first week, it's likely that you'll lose about 4 to 6 pounds of water weight. Many women sweat a lot in the weeks after giving birth, especially at night. Sweating is one way your body gets rid of the extra water you retained during pregnancy. Even after the water weight is gone, you may continue to sweat more than usual if you're nursing, probably due to the hormonal and metabolic changes associated with breastfeeding.
If you give birth vaginally, your vagina will probably remain a little larger than it was before. Right after delivery, your vagina is stretched open and may be swollen and bruised. Over the next few days, swelling starts to go down, and your vagina begins to regain muscle tone. In the next few weeks, it will gradually get smaller. Doing Kegel exercises regularly can restore muscle tone. Some women find pelvic rehab therapy is even more helpful. If you had a small tear in your perineum that did not require stitches, it should heal quickly and cause little discomfort.
If you had an episiotomy or a significant tear, your perineum needs time to heal, so wait to start having sex again until you get your provider's okay at your postpartum checkup. If you continue to have tenderness in that area, delay intercourse until you feel ready.
In the meantime, decide which method of contraception you want to use. The first breastfeeding sessions may cause some abdominal cramping because your baby's suckling stimulates the release of oxytocin — a hormone that triggers uterine contractions. And when your milk comes in , usually two to three days after you give birth, your breasts may get swollen, tender, and hard. They also may throb and feel uncomfortably full. This is called engorgement , and it should get better in a day or two.
Nursing your baby often is the best thing you can do for relief. Frequent nursing from the start is sometimes enough to prevent engorgement altogether. If this doesn't help, talk to a lactation consultant. You'll still begin to produce milk if you're not breastfeeding , and your breasts will become engorged a few days after you give birth. This may cause considerable discomfort that can last for several days.
The pain tends to peak three to five days after you give birth, and it can take several weeks for your milk to dry up completely. In the meantime, wear a supportive bra around the clock, and put cold packs on your breasts to ease swelling and inhibit milk production. Cover the cold packs with cloth to protect your skin. You can also take acetaminophen or ibuprofen for pain relief. If you're extremely uncomfortable, express just enough milk to make the situation more tolerable.
However, this may prolong the process because stimulating your nipples and draining your breasts signals your body to make more milk. And don't apply warmth to your breasts either because this can also encourage milk production.
If your hair got thicker during your pregnancy, it may now start to shed in handfuls over the first few months after delivery.
Over time usually within a year or so , your hair will return to normal. On the bright side, if you developed excess facial and body hair during pregnancy, it's likely you'll lose most of that hair within six months after having your baby. Hormonal changes, stress, and the fatigue brought on by new parenthood may affect your skin along with the rest of your body.
Some women who had perfectly clear skin during pregnancy will have more breakouts in the months following delivery.
On the other hand, if you had acne during pregnancy, you may begin to see some improvement now. Also, if you have chloasma darkened patches of skin on your lips, nose, cheeks, or forehead , or a dark line, called the linea nigra , running from your belly button to your public bone, the discoloration will begin to fade in the months after giving birth.
It will probably go away completely as long as you protect your skin from the sun. BabyCenter's editorial team is committed to providing the most helpful and trustworthy pregnancy and parenting information in the world. When creating and updating content, we rely on credible sources: respected health organizations, professional groups of doctors and other experts, and published studies in peer-reviewed journals.
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