Diastasis Recti: You probably hear the word” diastasis recti” from pregnant people, even if you know it is not your first pregnancy. Diastasis Recti is the muscles of your right and left belly getting wide, and you will get a space between them and the belly sticks out.
Learn About: Pelvic Girdle Pain During Pregnancy
This is very common in pregnant women as the abdomen gets stretched, to accommodate the growing baby. To get complete knowledge about this diastasis recti like symptoms, causes, treatment, exercises, and more, do get into this entire guide.
- What is Diastasis Recti?
- Symptoms of Diastasis Recti
- What are the Causes of Diastasis Recti
- How To Treat This Diastasis Recti
- How is Diastasis Recti Identified or Diagnosed?
- Can this Diastasis Recti be healed by itself?
- How to prevent this Diastasis Recti?
- Can we test ourselves to know this Diastasis Recti?
What is Diastasis Recti?
In pregnancy, the abdomen stretches, and women may face this “Diastasis Recti”. Here, diastasis refers to separation and recti refers to your abdomen muscles which is rectus abdominis.
This rectus abdominis runs vertically along the front of the stomach. The separation gap between the two muscles might be roughly 2.7 cm or more than that.
According to the reports, 60 percent of women will get this diastasis recti in pregnancy. It may happen, normally, but sometimes due to abdomen exercises, it may happen.
In this diastasis recti, there are different variations like Open diastasis, open below navel diastasis, open above navel diastasis, and completely open diastasis.
Symptoms of Diastasis Recti
The main symptom that you will identify the diastasis recti easily is through the pooch or bulge in your stomach. The other diastasis recti symptoms to know are given below.
- Difficulty is doing some activities like lifting
- You can feel weak in the midsection
- Lower back pain
- Constipation
- Strain
- Urine leakage when you sneeze or cough.
- Even you feel pain during sex.
What are the Causes of Diastasis Recti?
In Pregnancy, a woman will see a lot of changes in her body, like changes in breasts, hair, skin, body, and more. Some of the women even see this diastasis recti. But, no one knows what are the main causes of this diastasis recti.
So, here are some of the common diastasis recti causes that should be known. Let's dig down:
- Diastasis Recti happens due to the growth of your baby in the abdomen.
- It may also be caused by the stretching of muscles and the connecting tissue in the abdomen.
- Due to hormonal changes that take place in the body of pregnant women.
- Even if you get pregnant above the age of 35 years.
- Also, this diastasis recti may happen when you have more than one baby in your womb.
How To Treat This Diastasis Recti? | Diastasis Recti Treatment Information
During pregnancy, we do many exercises, eat healthy food, and more, so there might be many reasons as we discussed above for this diastasis recti.
But when you look at it for the treatment, sometimes it heals by itself over the weeks without any treatment. Sometimes, if you still see the symptoms after many weeks, it is always better to go for a checkup and medication.
Still, there are some things that you need to avoid if your diastasis recti needs to be rectified.
- Avoid straining and lifting the heavyweights.
- While you are sitting, just take the support of the pillow, towel, or anything else.
- When you are getting out of bed, dont directly, get down, sit on your knees, and then give the support by hand and get up.
When you ask your doctor for advice about this, he/she may suggest you to a physiotherapist. Check with him and do the exercises that were suggested to you.
If the rehab also won't work, then they will suggest surgery, which is called "abdominoplasty" or "a tummy tuck."
Diastasis Recti Exercises | Diastasis Recti Workouts To Try
FAQs on Diastasis Recti Pregnancy
1. How is Diastasis Recti Identified or Diagnosed?
Diastasis Recti is diagnosed by your doctor by the place you are getting the pain or by an ultrasound test they will diagnose through the hand or fingers they check the gap and diagnose.
2. Can this Diastasis Recti be healed by itself?
Of course, yes, in some people without any treatment, over the period, it can be healed easily after childbirth.
3. How to prevent this Diastasis Recti?
You can prevent this by doing some of the Diastasis Recti Exercises, like pelvic floor and oblique muscles, with the help of your doctor.
4. Can we test ourselves to know this Diastasis Recti?
You can even test yourself before consulting the doctor by sitting on the floor on your knees and lying on your back. Just support your hand on the head take the other hand and press the hand toes above the belly.
5. How much is the Diastasis Recti Surgery Cost?
The surgery cost for diastasis recti is different from one location to another, also it depends on various other factors too. Hence, the range of diastasis recti surgery costs can be between $5000 to $19000. Approximately, $10,000 to $10,500 is the average cost for diastasis recti repair surgery. Some may provide health insurance to some coverage or all of the cost so visit your insurance provider and check the possibilities.
6. Can I do diastasis recti exercises while pregnant?
A few of the diastasis recti exercises that should be tried during pregnancy are as such:
- Pelvic tilts
- Abdominal muscle tightening
- Cat cow
- Side crunches
Before planning to do these exercises during pregnancy, check with your doctor or healthcare experts.
Conclusion
We hope that the information we have shared above on this diastasis recti (Ab separation) is useful for you. Treatment for this diastasis recti can be done only under the guidance of a doctor.
For other interesting articles, do check out our soumyahospitals.com website.