Diastasis Recti - What, Why and How to Fix it!

So WHAT is Diastasis Recti?

Diastasis Recti occurs when the main abdominal ‘6 Pack’ (the Rectus Abdominis) separates down the middle due to the over-stretching of the line of connective tissue (the linea alba) that joins the 2 sides of the muscle together.

It often occurs in Pregnancy, although not exclusively.
During Pregnancy the rectus abdominis muscle stretches greatly, up to 50cm!  This can give a ‘stretch weakness’, which together with an increase in the intra-abdominal pressure (ie. the weight of the baby, womb etc) can cause the muscle to divide.

Sometimes it’s just a small separation, that you may not even realise you have whilst you’re still expecting (or even afterwards). 
Other times it’s a wider or longer division, in which case a hernia (bulge) can sometimes be felt or seen.   

Either way, you are not alone, as it pretty common, occurring in between 30 – 66% of ALL Pregnancies (Boissonnault & Blaschak 1998).

You are also more at risk if it’s not your 1st baby (and your core was already weakened),  if you had a large baby, have a small pelvis or if you did exercises that over-strained the rectus abdominis during pregnancy.