What does this mean? I'll ask a nurse on next rounds but the last one was feeling contractions And said the muscles in my stomach between the babies had separated and i have no idea what that means!
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What does this mean? I'll ask a nurse on next rounds but the last one was feeling contractions And said the muscles in my stomach between the babies had separated and i have no idea what that means!
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Meaning the muscles that hold your stomach together have separated from each other. Think of holdin your hands with your fingers interlocking, when they move apart they are separating, this is what your muscles are doing.
I'm not sure of the treatment, I think it's a belt to hold everything in, and reduce more damage.
Just one more thing to add to the list then lol
Thanks MN
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Morning MrsS. My muscles separated with each pregnancy but the most with my twins. It is basically your abs separating under all that pressure. After bubbas are born the hospital should organize a visit from the physio who will organize some tubi grip for you around $10 from memory! It is basically a huge piece of elastic that will help to hold everything in. They should also show you some exercises to help bring them back together they are similar to pelvic floor exercises. There is no danger to your babies from separation and will be addressed after birth. Dont stress with the exercises they should come back together.
Thank you Zap :)
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Ask to see the physio, cos there are some exercises you can do now to help strengthen supporting muscles. Tubigrip can also be worn in pregnancy to help support your abs and your back.
This happened to me, the tissue holding the muscles together tore and now they're separated. I went to see a physio and she gave me a compression bandage to wear and a couple of core strengthening exercises to do. I also do hydrotherapy which helps with any pain. She said that it can be quite common, and is easily repaired after birth :)
Thanks guys I'll bring it up again when I next get seen by the midwives :)
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how is it all going apart from the separated muscles???
don't stress, love - it's super common. They give you a tube which is like a tight legwarmer which goes from under your boobies to your hips, which helps (the same way a bandage on your arm helps support it).
and they give you some very gentle basic exercises to do a couple of times a day, which help too.
even with all my other problems post birth, etc, I went from a quite big separation ("four fingers" meaning as wide as the width of your index to baby fingers) to no separation in a month or two.
It doesn't hurt, and it's really very common.
They can probably give you some ideas of how to not make it any worse, but don't let it upset you :hug:
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).
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.
Mine was 8cm and when I went to the Physio at 2w pp it was back to normal
i had a lot of pain from mine. so for some people it can hurt.:
:( sorry to hear that, kate! mine didn't, and I hadn't heard of it hurting before. I hope it's better now?:
Thanks ladies I dont know how big mine is etc it hasn't been mentioned since very hectic day here (not with me) still waiting on the heart specialist who's 5 hours late!
But when I do get to talk to a midwife I'll see what was reported about it so I have a better understanding
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Mine separated with DS2 and it wasn't picked up until about 8 months post birth, along with several hernias! I was in agony from it, spent about 3 months in intense physio and a few more months of follow-ups. Everything is looking good now a year on.
Easily repaired is a lie. I had separated muscles with my third baby (my belly would go cone shaped when I lied down) and I did all the exercises and wore the compression belt. 2 years later they are no closer to being repaired than they were then. Ive given up on them ever being back to normal. My GP says that not every woman's muscles reconnect if they separated because of pregnancy, sometimes surgery is the only fix for them. But def try the exercises and compression band.
Mine separated the worst with my last three because they were so close and because I had a classical c-section (horizontal and vertical incision) with #6 there is still a two finger gap 15mths after my last birth.
It doesn't really bother me though I still have a reasonable flat tummy...my muscle aren't any where as good as they were and I don't think they ever will.
Lol Freya, I used to say it looked like a football was coming out of my tummy (sideways!) when I did a sit-up kind of motion while laying down. My Ob told me that sometimes surgery is the only fix for it as well, but he said that private health insurance would never cover it, grrrr! Apparently it's classed as "elective" and for "cosmetic reasons". I wonder if private health insurance would cover it if you claimed that it was constantly causing pain and a dr recommended the surgery...?:
Nikkie, if you want to see how big it is, lay on your back then pull your head and chest up off the bed like you are doing the start of a sit-up. While your tummy muscles are working run you fingers down the middle of your tummy from the middle of your rib cage down to your pelvis pushing in with a bit of pressure. Somewhere along the way you will feel a gap between the muscles. Imagine a guys six-pack has been split down the middle, because essentially that is what has happened to your muscles. Some people get the separation between rib cage and belly button (like me) and others get it between the belly button and pelvis (which I was told is usually more common). You can tell how big you split is by seeing how many fingers you can fit between the split sideways.
I was told that 1 in 3 pregnancies result in separated tummy muscles, so pretty common. My Ob also told me it's most common is pregnancies where the mother was fairly small to begin with, and then grew very quickly. So not surprising that it's happened to you with a tummy that has grown extremely quickly with two precious babes :)
You'd think that after all the work our muscles do holding our babies in that we would have super muscles! Pity it doesn't seem to work that way lol:
Mine repaired extremely easily in just a month or two simply by wearing the tubi and doing the recommended exercises. The physio I saw didn't seem at all surprised about my quick recovery.:
Clearly from the other posts here, that is not everyone's experience, but it was mine. It's extremely disrespectful to suggest that it's a "lie" for any of us to say that our repaired easily.
Mrs S - FX that you have a simple and quick recovery too, as it sounds like there's a vast variety of experiences (like every other element of pregnancy, labour and child rearing I guess :lol:)