Seperated muscles

[~ Mylitta ~]

Don't stress too much about the separated tummy muscles. It's pretty common. Mine were classed as severely separated because you could fit more than 4 fingers between my tummy muscles. During the pregnancy I wasn't meant to do anything that resulted in using tummy muscles like sit ups do. So if I was laying down I had to get up by rolling on my side and using my hands to push up, but I imagine you probably already have to do that anyway The only pain it ever caused me was a sort of burning/tearing sensation up under my ribs (my separation was from my rib cage to my belly button) and at times it felt like the muscles were going to rip from their attachment, but I was assured that that wouldn't happen.

After birth the physio in the hopsital brought round a tubigrip that cost me $15 and it was SOOOOOO worth it. It made me feel much more supported. And you know that icky gurgly feeling you get in your tummy when you walk around after birth? The only that feels like all your internal organs are re-shifting? Well I found the tubigrip helped enormously straight after birth. I think it also helped with my body image because I didn't feel like people were looking at my jelly belly when I was walking through the ward to and from SCN.

The separation can take years to heal though, and apparently sometimes never fully does. It doesn't cause any problems though. Mine never fully healed between DS and DD's pregnancies, and I still have a 1cm gap between them 3 months post-DD's birth which I imagine will be around for a long time. It just looks a bit yucky when you stress the tummy muscles (it bulges a little).

[Heaven]

Yeah, very common. I had 7cm separation. Not sure if it's fixed now but I had the tubi grip to wear and when I went to see the physio at 4wks it was down to 4cms.