In this video Diana and Caitlin discuss Diastasis Recti

They discuss

What it is (and how to say it!)
Who it affects
If it is dangerous
What do do about it
Exercises to do to heal diastasis recti
A self examination you can to to check your own diastasis

Find transcript below **

In this video Diana and Caitlin discuss Diastasis Recti

They discuss

What it is (and how to say it!)
Who it affects
If it is dangerous
What do do about it
Exercises to do to heal diastasis recti
A self examination you can to to check your own diastasis

Caitlin; The first thing I would love to talk about is diastasic recti, and just from starting at that, you can see me, and a lot of other mums have such a hard time, first, pronouncing it, knowing what it is and how it affects us,

Diana; okay… so first of all you say diastasis recti of the abdominals and basically what it is is your abdomen - here’s your belly button - and your abdomen has two rectus muscles, and normally they’re closed and joined like this- and you have the belly button there, and as the pregnancy grows and stretches the muscles out, they will slowly seperate. And this separation between is what we call diastasis. Yeah. So that’s pretty much what it is.

Caitlin; Okay, and does it affect everyone?

Diana; up to sixty percent of women get it during pregnancy and have it after, if you get it during the pregnancy, it doesn’t mean you’re going to have problems with this, up to about four centimetres is normal during pregnancy because, you know, your baby is growing your body needs to make room for a baby. You’re more likely to have it if you’re pregnant with twins or other multiples, or if you have a very big baby, or if you’ve already had several pregnancies already, or if you haven’t taken care of your abdominal muscles during pregnancy.

Caitlin; so is it dangerous? Or is it uncomfortable?

Diana: It’s not dangerous per se, it can be uncomfortable, especially for athletes, it can be a problem in the sense that someone with a large abdominal separation can have a weak core and loss of stability and mobility of the core-

Caitlin; Just like surfers, coming back into the ocean

Diana; It can do that, it can cause like pelvic pain, it can cause lower back pain, it can even cause gastrointestinal issues, it can cause pelvic floor disfunction, in cases you can even develop a hernia that could potentially need surgery.

Caitlin; So whats the best way we can prevent that happening, firstly, during pregnancy.

Diana- I think the main thing is to avoid doing abdominal exercises during pregnancy, and this is not only the things you would call exercise, its like consciously protecting your abdominal muscles. For example, when you get up from a bed instead of going all the way forward you can roll to the side and help yourself up with your hands, that way you’re minimising the impact you’re having on your abdominal muscles that are already working so hard by keeping that baby in place. So that’s one thing, also like picking up things from the floor, you know make sure you’re lifting with your legs, not your back, for your backs sake and also for your abdominals sake. Another thing if you are exercising, you want to make sure you lift both legs up at the same time, for example flutter kicks, I know you guys do a lot of those in the Salty Club, but thats directly engaging your abdominal muscles which you don’t want to do, you can probably still do abdominal exercises the first trimester, but after the first trimester you definitely want to stop. There are different types of exercises you can do in which you engage the abdominal muscles, but not with outwards pressure, rather with inwards pressure. Like hypopressive exercises, exercises with very low outward abdominal pressure. Those you can do

Caitlin- Whats an example of that

Diana; one thing that I like, and one thing that is really easy to do, which is when you’re pregnant, obviously what you want to do with your legs straight and feet plat on the floor, then you can inhale,

And when you exhale, you want to hug your baby, tighten your abdominal muscles, you can do it sitting up, or you can do it standing up, or you can do it on all fours, you can do it in front of a mirror like from your side where you will actually see how your belly will go from being like this to being a lot smaller. And its not bad for baby, it won’t hurt the baby, its like a baby hug. Because then, normally, your muscles are separating and when you do this exercise the level of pressure outward is diminished and then you make your muscles go back together like that.

Caitlin; right, okay. So you physically hold your hands and you push it in

Diana; no you don’t hold your hands, that was just to show it, you’ll feel it and you’ll be able to see it.

Postpartum there are also exercises, but in those ones you do what is called an apnea, which means you stop breathing for a little bit, and then you do a really strong hold of these muscles.

Caitlin; Ok, what would that look like. Let’s try it.

Diana; Ok, I am by no means an expert, and this is something I do recommend is done with the help of an expert of a pelvic floor specialist, these are the ones who usually do these types of exercises, because one thing is the abdominal muscles are very connected to the pelvic floor. You can’t- to properly treat a diastasic we can’t think of them as separate. And just the same as with the pelvic floor and the 6:13 illegible, we can’t think of them as separate. So, with hypopressive exercises in the postpartum period, not the weeks when you are pregnant, again, just like now we’re going to inhale and exhale three times, and the third time when I exhale all the air that I possibly can, completely empty with air, and then we’re going to suck in our abdominal muscles, so, yeah

*Inhale*

And you can do it sitting but normally there are different positions in which you do it to address different parts of the abdominal muscles,

6:42 ^7.14

So you want to make sure that your feet are lined up, that you’re in a proper position, then you would place your hands this way, there are different ways in which you can position your hands and do a different kind of exercise. So you would inhale, three times, and then you exhale, all of the air, and you hold it for as long as you can, which at least isn’t much in my case,

So another way that you can prevent diastasis is avoiding weightlifting or carrying a lot of heavy stuff, so say you normally weightlift, you want to try not carry anything heavier than 25 pounds, so if you’re doing dumbbells or whatever, you would want to make sure that the added weight is less than 25 pounds. And that would also apply to carrying heavy loads of laundry, other children, or grocery bags. Around 20 weeks you should definitely not be carrying any toddlers around anymore.

Caitlin; Okay, it’s hard though isn’t it

Diana; yes, but they can always come up to the couch with you, in bed with you, you can go down to their level instead of carrying them around.

Caitlin; right. Theres other ways to connect.

Diana; Its going to help in preventing a lot of back pain during pregnancy.

Caitlin; right, because the body is already under so much stress right.

Diana; and you’re probably already carrying in 3rd trimester another 20 pounds and then if you’re carrying a 20 pound child- your body is going to be feeling that.

10:35 specifically for surfers this is an important thing, for everybody but probably surfers will notice it more, and don’t be discouraged if after you have a baby you suddenly have zero core strength, that is normal, that is expected and you definitely need to allow the time to allow your body to heal and the muscles to gain strength again, but if you have a big diastasis it will affect your surfing, it will affect any type of activity you do, even taking care of your kid, and of yourself day-to-day, so there are also pelvic floor therapists that work with diastasis and even if a doctor might mention straight up surgery thats not how it works, therapy is completely effective in treating both pelvic floor issues and and diastasis recti. So, therapy works really well.

Caitlin; right, so its about having the willingness to do do it

Diana, and just putting the time in.

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Bonus; test yourself for Diastasis Recti, as shown on Caitlin