ladies with diastasis, come in

nikinikinine

I have been seeing a physical therapist for my diastasis (I have a four finger separation, well 2-4-3 total) and she keeps telling me that there is no way to properly exercise the muscle back closed. She says you can learn to "control" the gap, but the only correction is surgical (i.e. abdominoplasty).

I plan to talk to my OB about this at my annual in July. I also made a consult appointment with a plastic surgeon to actually get a professional opinion. I feel like if I exercise the muscle and keep wearing a binder I can fix this on my own.

I am not really interested in having a TT as the recovery seems hardcore and the scar is a little too much for me.

If you have a diastasis, has it gotten better with time? And have you talked to anyone about it - doctor/OB/surgeon etc.? What did they say were your options.

TIA!

mrs.cam

I had one, three fingers. I talked to my OB about it and she said it was pretty normal for someone my size to have after carrying full term twins (5'7", 115#). She said i could do exercises to help and they did! I did mostly breathing/contraction exercises for about two months (5 to 7 months pp) and it went away. I am left with some saggy skin of course but at least it is no longer protruding. I loosely followed the Tupler Technique and i was very happy with the results.

nikinikinine

mrs.cam:

I had one, three fingers. I talked to my OB about it and she said it was pretty normal for someone my size to have after carrying full term twins (5'7", 115#). She said i could do exercises to help and they did! I did mostly breathing/contraction exercises for about two months (5 to 7 months pp) and it went away. I am left with some saggy skin of course but at least it is no longer protruding. I loosely followed the Tupler Technique and i was very happy with the results.

This is so good to hear! I'm petite also - 5'3" was 117 pre-pg - and I carried to 38.5 weeks. I was just a big watermelon baby belly. I think my skin looks pretty good considering, but the pooch is not so hot.

I am doing the same breathing exercises, also based on the Tupler Technique with the PT. She's kind of a crazy TT pusher, so I get really frustrated when I'm there, but it's nice to have someone work with me to get the exercises right. It's hard to find time to get the exercises in daily, but I do them as much as I can and if I could just get rid of the pregnant look I'd be happy. 

Thank you so much for responding!!

mrs.cam

No problem, good luck! Try not to get too frustrated about perfection though, i certainly wasnt super super strict.

atc282

It does get a little better with time. I too carried full term (38.5 weeks) plus was underweight pre-pg. I went to a reconstruction plastic surgery consult and he said that there was no use in doing anything surgery-wise until I was finished having children. I can tell you at 14 mo. post partum (when I did an FET and got pg with a singleton), I still had some of the diastisis but it seemed a lot better than initially. I wasn't back to a flat stomach but I did feel I gained a little strength back.

I was told certain Pilate exercises (core moves) and/or transverse abdominal moves would possibly benefit. I know my dr. didn't want me doing "normal" ab workouts (i.e. crunches) since she said it would make it worse. She had me lay off ab work for the 1st 6 mo. post partum--I just did overall "core work" through jogging, elliptical, etc. Only after the 6 mo. mark or so did I attempt transverse and/or Pilates moves. 

Hang in there. If you're planning on having other kids, I'd wait it out. I was warned I would start showing a lot earlier with this baby b/c of my diastisis but so far it hasn't been too bad. My OB thinks since it's a singleton I shouldn't have any more damage done (I only had the lower abs destroyed with the the wins). So until we're done with having babies, I am resorting to lots of flowy tops and disguises (thankfully that is fashionable lately so wer'e in luck!)

Lithgirl

::stalking this post::

i'm already seeing a PT before even giving birth to my twins for this!

GiGi1221

I''ve been doing pilates for the last two months and it's been helping tremendously.  I don't think it can get any better than it is without a tummy tuck though.  When I contract the muscles they are touching and completely flat but when I'm not contracting- it's stll bery poochy! Bothers the he!! out of me!

Temp6313048411121614

I was wondering if PT would help with this.