Postpartum rectus abdominis recovery

There is no need to be overly anxious. 90% of full-term mothers do not need special medical intervention to separate less than 2 fingers within 1 year after delivery. They can recover naturally by adjusting daily behavior + light core training.； Separation of 2-3 fingers can be improved by electrical stimulation or rehabilitation training after professional evaluation. ； Only when there are more than 3 fingers that have not recovered 1 year after delivery and are accompanied by severe functional impairment, surgical intervention needs to be considered.

Last week, I accompanied Xiao Min, who had just given birth to 3 months old, to the hospital for a follow-up check-up. She even wore a loose sweater when she went out. She said that her belly still felt like she was carrying a grapefruit. The zipper of her previous jeans could not even reach her waist. She had taken a test at a maternity store near her home before. They said she had 2.8 fingers separated and needed 15 repair packages, which cost 18,000 after discounts. She was so frightened that she cried to me that night and asked whether she would never return to her previous figure. Oh, by the way, I would like to mention here that when measuring separation, many obstetrics and gynecology clinics will deliberately press deeply and select the loosest part of the abdomen for measurement. They will always say your 3 fingers. In fact, the measurement in regular hospitals is to measure the width of the three positions of the middle umbilicus, 3cm above the umbilicus, and 3cm below the umbilicus and take the average. Don’t be deliberately frightened. When Xiao Min was later tested in the hospital, the average separation was 1.8 fingers. The doctor didn't even prescribe any medicine, so she just asked her to go home and pay more attention to her daily posture and practice some simple core movements.

In fact, this situation is too common. I read the data in "Chinese Women's Postpartum Rehabilitation Guide" before. Among mothers who give birth at full term, 90% of mothers will have varying degrees of rectus abdominis separation after delivery. After all, during the ten months of pregnancy, the enlarging uterus stretches the rectus abdominis muscle from the white line in the middle. It's not that you are fat, or that you have poor physical fitness, it is just a normal physiological change. My cousin was in a hurry to recover. She followed fitness bloggers to do crunches and plank support after two months of training. Her belly was not smaller, but her waist hurt every time she held the baby. She went to the rehabilitation department for a checkup and found that the diastasis of the rectus abdominis had increased from 1.5 fingers at 42 days postpartum to 2.7 fingers. The doctor said that she was doing a disservice - she did high-intensity crunches when the rectus abdominis muscles were not closed, and the abdominal pressure was pushed upwards, which in turn stretched the already slack linea alba wider.

Nowadays, there are very mixed opinions about rectus abdominis recovery, and the opinions of practitioners in different fields are quite different. Most obstetrics and health care institutions recommend electrical stimulation equipment, saying that it can be repaired while lying down. I have also had friends who have done it. They say that for people who can’t find any sense of abdominal strength after childbirth and can’t even do abdominal breathing correctly, it can really help wake up the muscles and you can find the feeling of core tightening after doing it three or five times. But if you can accurately control the abdominal strength, there is actually no need to spend this money. The effect of practicing at home is not much different. There is also a lot of controversy about the abdominal corset. A friend of mine who is an obstetrician and gynecologist said that wearing it when you get out of bed in the first three days after a vaginal delivery can relieve the discomfort of sagging organs. If you have a caesarean section, wearing it can reduce the pain of wound traction, but don’t wear it 24 hours a day. If you wear it for a long time, the core muscles will be in a state of being "assisted" and will become wasted and atrophy, making it more difficult for the rectus abdominis to grow back.

The precautions I usually help the mothers around me organize are all small details that don’t cost a penny. If I stick to them, the results are really obvious. For example, when you usually hold a child, don't slump your waist and push your belly out to support the child. Take a breath first and close your belly before hugging. It will be like the feeling when someone is about to hit your belly and you tighten up in advance. ； Also, before sneezing or coughing, press your hands on your stomach and tighten your core. Otherwise, the abdominal pressure will suddenly jump up, which will easily stretch the rectus abdominis that has not yet grown firmly. ； Don’t slump on the sofa when you are sitting and breastfeeding. Put a pillow behind your waist and don’t slump your waist and belly. Paying attention to these small details every day is much more effective than practicing high-intensity movements once a week.

Don’t make the training too complicated. I generally recommend starting with abdominal breathing. When lying down, bend your knees and step on the bed, put your hands on both sides of your waist. When you inhale, feel your belly pushing against your hands on both sides, not toward the chest. When you exhale, pull it up from the pubic bone, just like wearing tight jeans. Pull your belly in slowly, and pause for 2 seconds at the end of each breath. Do it for 10 minutes every day if you have nothing to do. You can do it when you are watching a TV show. It is very simple. After doing it for a week, you can find the feeling, and then try the dead bug. When you lie down, your waist is tightly attached to the bed. If it can't stick, put a thin towel on it, don't let the towel fall off, and then slowly lower your arms and legs alternately, move slowly, don't slump your waist, do a group of 10 times, 3 groups a day is enough.

Of course, there are situations that do require medical intervention. If you are one year postpartum and the separation is still more than 3 fingers, you usually leak when you lift something heavy, your back hurts so much that you can’t even go shopping for half an hour, and your belly is so loose, then you can go to the rehabilitation department or plastic surgery department of a regular hospital to evaluate whether you should have an abdominoplasty. However, this is a surgery after all, with trauma and a recovery period. If there is no obvious functional impairment and you just want to tighten your belly, there is really no need to suffer this.

To be honest, I have met so many mothers, and I found that many of them are anxious not because of any problems with the rectus abdominis itself, but because they are frightened by the online marketing of "recovering the vest line after confinement". They have several years of fitness foundation before pregnancy, and we ordinary people don't need to compare with others. Give your body some time. After all, it has worked hard to help you give birth to a little life. It is normal to have some traces, right? If you are really unsure about your situation, go to the rehabilitation department of a regular hospital for an evaluation. It only costs a few dozen yuan, don't just buy a maternity and health package worth tens of thousands of yuan and pay the IQ tax.