Diastasis Recti... Say what?

Sooooooooooo.... I spent so much time preparing for baby that I completely ignored/overlooked issues that affected just me.  I remember I first learned about diastasis recti (abdominal splitting) at my 2 weeks post delivery check up with my midwife. She put her fingers on the middle line of my belly pushed down and said, "the gap is 3 fingers."   "Um, what gap?"

Diastasis recti is essentially when your abdominal muscles divide and move to the side in order to accommodate your ever growing baby bump. It effects 30% of all pregnancies and your chances of developing it increases when you yourself are small, deliver a high birth weight baby, have had multiple pregnancies, or are over the age of 35.

   So my earlier question, "What gap?" fled my thought process just as quickly as it had fallen into my lap until about 6 months post partum the question returned.  I had all of these other symptoms that weren't going away.

Here are some sample symptoms:

- pregnant belly look (even if you were back to or lower than pre-baby weight)

- belly bulge when cough or laugh

- urine leakage

- muscle weakness

- hernia or risk of hernia

- lower back pain

- pain during intercourse

- constipation

I had a good handful of these and my three finger gap had only reduced to a two finger gap. This of course sparked my traditional research binge routine, but this time, it ended with just more frustration. Everything I seemed to find contradicted each other. One personal trainer said, "do planks." Another would say, "planks make it worse." So, in fear I would make it worse, I scheduled an appointment to see my main care physician.  She advised me that it could take up to 12 months to heal and recommended kegels (sigh) and no abdominal workout until the gap naturally reduced.

...and there I sat until I returned to the doctor at 19 months post-partum with a 2 finger gap and demanded a referral to a physical therapist. This sitting and waiting was not fulfilling.....