How to check for Diastasis (Abdominal Separation) Post Baby. Click below to watch the video.
Abdominal separation is where the two six pack muscles (rectus abdominus) widen as a result of the linea alba (this is a fibrous tissue that runs down the midline of the tummy) stretching and thinning during pregnancy.
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Place one hand underneath your head and the other hand on your tummy. Place your fingertips horizontally across your midline (the part that showed brown when you were pregnant). You want to have your fingers parallel with the waistline, at the level of the belly button.
- Relax your tummy, breath in and then breath out and gently press the fingertips into your tummy.
- Slowly, lift your head and shoulders up off the floor by about 5 cms, making sure that the ribcage moves closer to the pelvis.
- Feel for the right and left sides of the rectus abdominis (or otherwise the ‘six pack’ muscles by gliding the fingertips back and forth across your midline.
- Test for a separation at about 2 cms above and below your belly button. A separation of 1-2 fingers width is considered normal. A gap of greater than 2 and half fingers requires special post natal exercises and care.
Use correct form when checking for the gap.
Be sure to avoid pulling your head off the mat.
Try to contract your abs, moving your ribcage closer to your pelvis. You’ll feel the contraction deepening and the width of the gap at the midline decreasing. If you aren’t activating your abs, you might assume you have a wider abdominal separation than you actually have).
