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Diastasis Recti

1
So until 6 months ago I’d never heard of diastasis recti, it’s a separation of the right and left side of your abdominal muscles which results in a sticky out belly due to your organs not being kept in place as the connective tissue between the muscles has become too thin. It can cause lower back pain and urine leaking, nice eh!

After reading as much as I could find on the internet about it, it seemed logical that I should have it after having 2 breech babies and especially as I was huge when I was pregnant with Lucas and his scans revealed he was

SelfishMother.com
2
lying in a hammock like position, probably due to my poor muscles after the previous 5 pregnancies. I had symphysis pubis when I was pregnant with Freya which was maybe the start of my problems or a result of them.

How did all this research come about you might ask? Well I’m blaming my mother, she was constantly telling me how disgusting my belly was and that there must be something wrong, so eventually I went to the doctors to ask what she thought. She sent me for a scan which showed nothing and she told me I had central obesity and to get my arse

SelfishMother.com
3
down the gym and work damn hard, (not in quite those words of course).

So I joined the gym and I worked hard, for 3 months solid I worked out 6 days a week doing body combat, body pump, running and lifting weights, heavy weights low repetitions. I started out at 34% body fat but to look at me you wouldn’t have thought it was that high as it was all on my waist and I got down to 25%, I felt like I’d achieved something but my belly didn’t look any better, in fact it was just now more obvious because I’d lost all fat everywhere else.

The problem

SelfishMother.com
4
with this as you might imagine is that when you’re slim with a huge belly people naturally think you’re pregnant. This came to a head at my old job when people were continually asking me when my baby was due and eventually I left as it was distressing me so much I would burst into tears on the shop floor.

I couldn’t understand why it looked like it did, I’d lost the fat? This is when I stumbled upon diastasis recti on the internet, I read about it and found an online video showing you how to check if you had it. I checked and I did indeed have a

SelfishMother.com
5
massive gap, about 4 fingers width at the belly button.

I went back to see the doctor, she checked and confirmed the problem and said she’d refer me for physiotherapy but advised me that it didn’t work for everyone, she didn’t mention surgery but I knew that was an option from reading online.

I found an online programme designed specifically for the condition called mutu so I started on the programme. I learnt that my posture and breathing and wearing heels had all contributed to my core becoming weak, and I thought it was all those pregnancies!

SelfishMother.com
6
Men and babies can get this too apparently.

A few weeks in I noticed that I was leaking when doing body combat, something that hadn’t happened before, I was also getting pain in my knees from all the squats and lunges. I read that it was advised to give up all other exercise which was really hard when I’d worked so hard for the last few months but eventually I gave up the gym in the interest of fixing my core. It turned out a lot of the exercises I had been doing were actually just making my muscles separate further 🙁

I hit a plateau with the

SelfishMother.com
7
programme though as you couldn’t advance while still having a gap of more than 2 fingers which I did and I became bored and frustrated with doing the same exercises over and over.

I threw away all my heels though and vowed to only wear zero drop heel shoes form here on, (I never enjoyed wearing heels anyway and my husband is shorter than me already!).

After a while I got my physio referral and after my first appointment realised I hadn’t even been engaging my muscles correctly, I seemed to have lost the link between my brain and my transverse

SelfishMother.com
8
abdominus muscle.

I did the most simple exercise for 2 weeks and eventually I started to be able to distinguish between pulling in at the belly button, (a big no no apparently) pulling the top tummy muscles in and engaging the tva below the belly button. As soon as I did, I started to notice it firing when I was doing things like letting off the break while driving and when lifting things.

The next appointment saw me add a few more simple exercises and then a few more etc, by the end of my sessions my core felt quite strong, I could engage really

SelfishMother.com
9
strongly and there was no doming when doing the exercises, (something that happens when say doing some pilates moves where you lift your head and push your legs away from you and means your organs are pushing up through your tummy, yuk!) BUT there had been no improvement in either the appearance of my belly or the width of the gap between my muscles 🙁

It’s all very disheartening after all the work I’ve put in, I have found another online programme called restore your core which is very well rated but I’m reluctant to pay out for it in case it

SelfishMother.com
10
doesn’t help either.

What baffles me the most is that when I pull my belly in (which you’re not meant to do as it makes your muscles over reactive as I understand, I’d spent years trying to hold it in, also making it worse) my stomach is pretty much flat. I’m pretty sure you can’t pull fat in but if it was bloating could I pull it in? or does this just prove that it’s just that the muscle has become so stretched it’s become like an overused elastic band and can’t go back to it’s former shape? Does that mean that surgery will be the only

SelfishMother.com
11
option for me?

Lots of women in the US have had the surgery and claimed it on their insurance, others have said it isn’t included. I’ve been told some women have had it done here on the NHS but they’ve cut a vertical line down their tummy to sew it back together??!! I can’t afford a tummy tuck but neither would I want to go through that kind of major surgery just to be left with another massive scar (I’ve had 2 c-sections) and a lot of flabby skin. Does it all really matter? I’m healthy, my husband loves me whatever shape I am, in fact he always

SelfishMother.com
12
liked me pregnant best?! Well in a word, yes, it matters to me, I hate what I see in the mirror, I hate that my knickers are bigger than bridget jones’s and if I don’t wear a pair that render me unable to breathe I get asked if I’m pregnant on an almost daily basis. I love my kids and I wouldn’t swap them to have a flat belly back but I don’t want to look like this until the day I die.

*From my blog lifewithfreya.blogspot.co.uk

 

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- 14 Nov 16

So until 6 months ago I’d never heard of diastasis recti, it’s a separation of the right and left side of your abdominal muscles which results in a sticky out belly due to your organs not being kept in place as the connective tissue between the muscles has become too thin. It can cause lower back pain and urine leaking, nice eh!

After reading as much as I could find on the internet about it, it seemed logical that I should have it after having 2 breech babies and especially as I was huge when I was pregnant with Lucas and his scans revealed he was lying in a hammock like position, probably due to my poor muscles after the previous 5 pregnancies. I had symphysis pubis when I was pregnant with Freya which was maybe the start of my problems or a result of them.

How did all this research come about you might ask? Well I’m blaming my mother, she was constantly telling me how disgusting my belly was and that there must be something wrong, so eventually I went to the doctors to ask what she thought. She sent me for a scan which showed nothing and she told me I had central obesity and to get my arse down the gym and work damn hard, (not in quite those words of course).

So I joined the gym and I worked hard, for 3 months solid I worked out 6 days a week doing body combat, body pump, running and lifting weights, heavy weights low repetitions. I started out at 34% body fat but to look at me you wouldn’t have thought it was that high as it was all on my waist and I got down to 25%, I felt like I’d achieved something but my belly didn’t look any better, in fact it was just now more obvious because I’d lost all fat everywhere else.

The problem with this as you might imagine is that when you’re slim with a huge belly people naturally think you’re pregnant. This came to a head at my old job when people were continually asking me when my baby was due and eventually I left as it was distressing me so much I would burst into tears on the shop floor.

I couldn’t understand why it looked like it did, I’d lost the fat? This is when I stumbled upon diastasis recti on the internet, I read about it and found an online video showing you how to check if you had it. I checked and I did indeed have a massive gap, about 4 fingers width at the belly button.

I went back to see the doctor, she checked and confirmed the problem and said she’d refer me for physiotherapy but advised me that it didn’t work for everyone, she didn’t mention surgery but I knew that was an option from reading online.

I found an online programme designed specifically for the condition called mutu so I started on the programme. I learnt that my posture and breathing and wearing heels had all contributed to my core becoming weak, and I thought it was all those pregnancies! Men and babies can get this too apparently.

A few weeks in I noticed that I was leaking when doing body combat, something that hadn’t happened before, I was also getting pain in my knees from all the squats and lunges. I read that it was advised to give up all other exercise which was really hard when I’d worked so hard for the last few months but eventually I gave up the gym in the interest of fixing my core. It turned out a lot of the exercises I had been doing were actually just making my muscles separate further 🙁

I hit a plateau with the programme though as you couldn’t advance while still having a gap of more than 2 fingers which I did and I became bored and frustrated with doing the same exercises over and over.

I threw away all my heels though and vowed to only wear zero drop heel shoes form here on, (I never enjoyed wearing heels anyway and my husband is shorter than me already!).

After a while I got my physio referral and after my first appointment realised I hadn’t even been engaging my muscles correctly, I seemed to have lost the link between my brain and my transverse abdominus muscle.

I did the most simple exercise for 2 weeks and eventually I started to be able to distinguish between pulling in at the belly button, (a big no no apparently) pulling the top tummy muscles in and engaging the tva below the belly button. As soon as I did, I started to notice it firing when I was doing things like letting off the break while driving and when lifting things.

The next appointment saw me add a few more simple exercises and then a few more etc, by the end of my sessions my core felt quite strong, I could engage really strongly and there was no doming when doing the exercises, (something that happens when say doing some pilates moves where you lift your head and push your legs away from you and means your organs are pushing up through your tummy, yuk!) BUT there had been no improvement in either the appearance of my belly or the width of the gap between my muscles 🙁

It’s all very disheartening after all the work I’ve put in, I have found another online programme called restore your core which is very well rated but I’m reluctant to pay out for it in case it doesn’t help either.

What baffles me the most is that when I pull my belly in (which you’re not meant to do as it makes your muscles over reactive as I understand, I’d spent years trying to hold it in, also making it worse) my stomach is pretty much flat. I’m pretty sure you can’t pull fat in but if it was bloating could I pull it in? or does this just prove that it’s just that the muscle has become so stretched it’s become like an overused elastic band and can’t go back to it’s former shape? Does that mean that surgery will be the only option for me?

Lots of women in the US have had the surgery and claimed it on their insurance, others have said it isn’t included. I’ve been told some women have had it done here on the NHS but they’ve cut a vertical line down their tummy to sew it back together??!! I can’t afford a tummy tuck but neither would I want to go through that kind of major surgery just to be left with another massive scar (I’ve had 2 c-sections) and a lot of flabby skin. Does it all really matter? I’m healthy, my husband loves me whatever shape I am, in fact he always liked me pregnant best?! Well in a word, yes, it matters to me, I hate what I see in the mirror, I hate that my knickers are bigger than bridget jones’s and if I don’t wear a pair that render me unable to breathe I get asked if I’m pregnant on an almost daily basis. I love my kids and I wouldn’t swap them to have a flat belly back but I don’t want to look like this until the day I die.

15049773_666945183476332_1050911539_n

*From my blog lifewithfreya.blogspot.co.uk

 

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