How to Know If You Have Diastasis Recti After Pregnancy
Diastasis recti is common after pregnancy, but what does it actually mean — and when is it something you should have assessed?
Look down at your tummy a few weeks or months after giving birth and it can be difficult to know what’s normal.
Is the softness simply part of post-pregnancy recovery? Is the ridge that appears when you sit up something to worry about? And if you can feel a gap around your belly button, does that mean your abdominal muscles have “separated”?
At Family Osteopathy Hammersmith, these are questions we hear regularly from women during postnatal appointments and Mummy MOT assessments.
The good news is that some degree of abdominal widening is a normal part of pregnancy. The important question isn’t simply “How big is the gap?” It’s how your abdominal wall is functioning, how your body manages pressure and load, and whether you’re experiencing symptoms that are affecting your everyday life or exercise.
What is diastasis recti?
Diastasis recti, sometimes called diastasis rectus abdominis muscle (DRAM) or abdominal separation, describes an increase in the distance between the two sides of the rectus abdominis muscles.
These are the muscles running vertically down the front of your abdomen.
During pregnancy, the growing uterus places increasing stretch on the abdominal wall. The linea alba — the connective tissue running down the middle of the abdomen — stretches and changes its mechanical properties, allowing the abdominal muscles to accommodate your growing baby.
This is a normal adaptation to pregnancy. It doesn’t mean that anything has gone wrong.
After birth, the abdominal wall gradually changes again as your tissues recover and you begin to rebuild strength and coordination. For some women, the linea alba remains wider or less able to generate tension, and this may be associated with a visible bulge or doming when the abdominal wall is loaded.
The size of the gap is only one part of the picture.
What are the signs of diastasis recti?
There are several things you may notice after pregnancy that are worth having assessed.
1. Doming or bulging along the midline
You may notice a ridge or dome appearing along the centre of your abdomen when you:
Sit up from lying down
Get out of bed
Cough or sneeze
Lift something
Perform certain abdominal exercises
Change position or put more load through your trunk
Doming doesn’t automatically mean that you have a serious problem. It is one piece of information about how your abdominal wall is responding to pressure and load.
2. A softer or wider area around the midline
Some women notice that the tissue around the belly button feels softer or different from before pregnancy.
You may also be able to feel a space between the two sides of the rectus muscles.
However, being able to feel a gap doesn’t necessarily mean that something is wrong. Some degree of widening is extremely common following pregnancy, and the way the abdominal wall functions is more important than a measurement alone.
3. A feeling of reduced core support
You might notice that your abdomen doesn’t feel as strong or supportive as it did before pregnancy.
This could show up when:
Picking up your baby
Getting up from the floor
Carrying shopping
Exercising
Changing position in bed
Returning to strength training
Again, this doesn’t automatically mean that diastasis recti is the cause. Your abdominal wall, breathing, pelvic floor, hips and wider movement patterns all contribute to how your trunk manages load.
4. Difficulty returning to exercise
Perhaps you have returned to the gym but certain exercises don’t feel right.
You may notice doming during planks, lifting or other exercises, or feel that you don’t have the same control through your trunk that you had before pregnancy.
Rather than avoiding exercise altogether, it can be more useful to work out what level of load your body can currently manage and progressively build from there.
Current postnatal guidance supports a gradual return to exercise rather than treating a particular abdominal measurement as a reason to avoid activity altogether.
Can you check for diastasis recti yourself?
You can perform a simple self-check, but it’s important not to treat it as a diagnosis.
Try the following:
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet supported.
Place your fingertips gently along the midline of your abdomen, around your belly button.
Gently lift your head and shoulders slightly.
Notice whether you can feel a space between the two sides of the rectus muscles.
Pay attention to the width, depth and firmness of the tissue, rather than simply counting finger widths.
Repeat slightly above and below your belly button, as the abdominal wall can feel different at different points.
You may also notice a ridge or dome appearing as you lift.
Don’t get too hung up on finger widths
You’ll often see online advice suggesting that one, two or three finger widths represents a particular diagnosis.
It’s not that straightforward.
Finger-width measurements vary depending on the examiner, finger size, position, pressure and technique. More importantly, the width of the gap doesn’t tell us on its own how well your abdominal wall is functioning.
That’s why we don’t want women measuring their tummy repeatedly and worrying about whether they’ve “passed” or “failed” a particular number.
A better question is:
Can your abdominal wall generate and manage tension effectively while you breathe, move and load your body?
That’s much more useful clinically.
Does diastasis recti cause back pain?
This is an area where online information can be misleading.
Diastasis recti and lower-back pain can occur together after pregnancy, but it would be too simplistic to say that abdominal separation causes back pain.
Postnatal back pain can have many contributing factors, including changes in strength, movement patterns, sleep, lifting and carrying, previous back problems, pelvic girdle pain and the physical demands of caring for a baby.
Your abdominal wall is one part of that picture.
At Family Osteopathy Hammersmith, we therefore look at the whole person rather than assuming that every postnatal symptom is caused by diastasis recti.
Does diastasis recti cause pelvic floor problems?
The same principle applies here.
The abdominal wall, diaphragm and pelvic floor contribute to the management of pressure within the trunk, so they need to coordinate effectively during movement and exercise.
However, having diastasis recti doesn’t automatically mean that you have pelvic-floor dysfunction.
If you’re experiencing:
Urinary leakage
Bowel-control problems
A feeling of vaginal heaviness or pressure
A sensation of something bulging
Pelvic pain
Pain during intercourse
these symptoms deserve their own assessment.
Where appropriate, we can screen and advise you as part of your postnatal assessment, and may recommend assessment with a specialist pelvic-health physiotherapist.
That’s not a failure of osteopathy — it’s good multidisciplinary care.
What actually helps diastasis recti?
There isn’t one magic exercise that “closes” diastasis recti.
The aim is to gradually restore strength, coordination and load tolerance throughout your abdominal wall and wider body.
This may include:
Breathing and pressure management
Learning how your breathing, abdominal wall and pelvic floor coordinate can be a useful starting point.
Progressive core strengthening
Rather than avoiding all abdominal exercises, we can gradually introduce appropriate strengthening exercises based on your current ability.
Functional strength
Your core doesn’t only need to work while you’re lying on a mat.
Eventually, it needs to help you lift your baby, carry shopping, get up from the floor, exercise and perform the activities that actually matter to you.
Gradual return to exercise
If you want to return to running, weight training, Pilates or higher-intensity exercise, we can help you think about progression rather than simply telling you to avoid certain movements.
The wider principle is progressive loading: start with what you can comfortably control and gradually increase the challenge.
NICE guidance similarly emphasises individually tailored postnatal rehabilitation rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
When should you have diastasis recti assessed?
Consider an assessment if:
You’re concerned about a persistent abdominal gap or change in your abdominal wall
You regularly notice pronounced doming during movement
Your abdomen feels weak or unsupported
You’re struggling to return to exercise
You have associated back or pelvic symptoms
You’re experiencing pelvic-floor symptoms
You simply aren’t sure whether what you’re feeling is part of normal recovery
And importantly, there’s no expiry date on postnatal recovery.
You don’t have to be six weeks postpartum to ask questions about your body. If your baby is six months, two years or even much older, it can still be worthwhile understanding what’s happening and what you can do about it.
How we assess diastasis recti at Family Osteopathy Hammersmith
As part of a Mummy MOT, we’ll start by understanding your pregnancy, birth, recovery and what you actually want to get back to doing.
We can then assess relevant aspects of:
Your abdominal wall
The linea alba and abdominal wall tension
Your breathing and pressure management
Your posture and movement
Your pelvis, hips and lower back
Your wider strength and movement patterns
Relevant pelvic-floor symptoms
We don’t simply measure a gap and hand you a list of exercises.
The aim is to understand how your body is functioning now and what it needs to progress.
If your symptoms suggest that specialist pelvic-health physiotherapy or another healthcare professional would be more appropriate, we’ll tell you that too.
You don’t need to “fix” your body
Perhaps the most important thing to take away is that diastasis recti is not a failure of your body.
Your abdominal wall changed because your body needed to accommodate a pregnancy.
Recovery isn’t about forcing everything back into exactly the same shape it was before you had a baby. It’s about restoring the strength, confidence and capacity you need for the life you want to lead now.
Whether that means lifting your baby comfortably, getting back to the gym, returning to running or simply feeling more confident in your body, that’s what we want to help you work towards.
Book a Mummy MOT in Hammersmith
If you’re wondering whether you have diastasis recti after pregnancy, a Mummy MOT at Family Osteopathy Hammersmith gives you the opportunity to have your concerns properly assessed and discussed rather than trying to interpret what you’re seeing at home.
We’ll meet you where you are, explain what we’re finding in straightforward language and help you understand what the next step should be.
Family Osteopathy Hammersmith — postnatal osteopathy and Mummy MOT care for mums across Hammersmith and West London.
