All women experience a form of diastasis or diastasis recti towards the end of pregnancy -
it’s when your stomach muscles (or “six pack”, if you ever had one of those!) separate to make
room for the baby and cause a “tummy gap”. This can be especially pronounced for women who
have big babies or twins. Diastasis can be uncomfortable and make your abdomen bulge out a
while after giving birth. It should “fix” itself within 8 weeks, as the connective tissue (linea alba)
heals.

But this isn’t always the case and some women need some help to get onto the road to recovery.

How can we help?

If you still have diastasis 8 weeks after giving birth, it’s probably because something else is going on and we can help:

• With our whole body approach from diagnosis to treatment, we assess and treat to optimise alignment, movement and breathing so you have a good foundation to strengthen your pelvic floor and abdominals

• We treat restrictions causing altered alignment and movement with manual therapy techniques (techniques may include visceral manipulation, neural manipulation, soft tissue release, METs)

• We prescribe individualised rehabilitation to strengthen the abdominals (as well as other required areas such as pelvic floor/gluts), increasing tension in the linea alba and optimising control of movement and load. Eg lifting a baby

• Optimising above helps to manage abdominal pressure optimally, reducing abdominal bulging

We check for diastasis in our Mummy MOT as well as other common postnatal conditions.