Separated Stomach Muscles

[AmandaJ]

I saw a midwife last week that told me that my stomach muscles had separated quite a bit.

My question is how will this affect me in labour? and how will it affect me after the delivery?

HOpe this is in the right spot, not quite sure were to post this.

Thanks.

[Trillian]

A friend of mine had this happen. It didn't affect her during the birth, but afterwards she had to wear a support bandage for a few weeks after to try to hold it in I suppose. Bear in mind though that everyone with this condition will be different and my friend was rather large before her pg and put on about 30 kg during pg. She also had to do a bit of physio too.

Ask your gp/ob about it now and find out as much as you can about it.

[BellyBelly]

I'll just move this to the preggy section, it's not really a doula question

[Ambah]

My stomach muscles also seperated during my pregnancy... I wonder if the big weight gain is related at all, cause I did put on 40kg with my pg...

To be honest once I was told about them seperating, no one ever said anything again... my labour was fine, with no probs at all.

After birth my stomach felt fine as well... mind you I certainly wasnt about to start doing sit ups or anything. (my mum apparently attempted sit ups a week or two after the birth of her first - and she hurt her stomach muscles so badly that she had to be hospitalised! :shock: )

I would just ask your care provider if there is anything you should be doing for it... and also after bubs is born, make sure you see your doctor before you attempt to start excercises - especially if you are going to be using your stomach muscles.

[Astrolady]

mine actually seperated in labour and I was told it would take a while to loose the podgy belly and i Had to do excersise which I never did rofl 8-[

Love

[Ambah]

Hmmmm so maybe that is why my belly is still so yuuuck?? 8-[ Mind you my waistline has always been my worst body part/feature, lmao!

[Alan]

Hi Amanda

This problem is not unusual. In most cases nothing needs to be done. Usually it will not affect your labour and birth. Some people may need a brace for a few weeks but as I have said, in most cases we o nothing.

[AmandaJ]

Thanks for all the replies, I haven't really put much weight on this pg but it is pretty close to my last one, only 9 mths apart. It was just a bit worring when they told me about it, so I suppose I'll just see what happens after I've had bubs.

[~Raven~]

My stomach muscles had a big separation but doing excercises that are pilates based are a big help. Mine had almost closed back before this PG after nearly 12 months of doing pilates.

[*Jo*]

I had this last pg, midwife discovered it about 24 weeks when I showed her the weird bulgy thing that happened when I sat up! She referred me to a physio who taught me a few exercises, but they continued to seperate anyway. Didn't affect labour at all, but they gave me some tubigrip stuff afterwards to wear, because you get a bit of a "it's all hanging out" sensation. Six weeks after the birth I was referred by the physio to a "tummy toning" class where they just went through the exercises again. They said they will close up eventually anyway, but the exercises help it happen quicker. I worked on mine, but as soon as I was pg again, they opened up like a zipper!

Only advice I would give is to be careful getting up out of bed etc and roll on your side to get up, rather than sit straight up.