Separated Ab Muscles

[nuthinbutpink]

Anyone else have that? A vertical separation of your abdominal muscles? When I lie on my back and raise my head off the ground, I have a 1 1/2 inch gap between my Ab walls that I can stick my hand down in. It's gross. I don't think they are going back. I am under 120 Lbs now and I've been working out for over a year.

Is surgery my only option? Anyone else deal with this?

[jils04]

Yes both myself and sister.my sister had an eight finger separation which she went to physio forto strengthen the muscles but the timmy sticking out never goes back no matter what you do.she had a tummy tuck and now looks 16!!! I'm next

[MatildaMai]

Me too. I'm about 130lbs and still have a four / five finger separation from my twin pregnancy. My physio sent me to see a surgeon as I have back / disc problems. He said the only way I'll ever improve and have less back pain / more mobility is to have the surgery so that my back has some abdominal support. Am hoping that because of my back issues I will be able to get some of it covered on insurance as its generally considered a cosmetic procedure here.

[dannikins]

i get that too, one thing that helps is to use one of those support band things around your middle after baby is born, it pulls everything back in and helps the muscles rejoin properly.

thats why the they use to wrap their tummys 100 years ago.

there are a few yoga things etc that can help to pull them back together, but it takes a long time and alot of dedication, and i dont think it will get rid of it completley.

if you are after a quick fix, then surgery is the only real answer, which involves cutting you open and stitching the muscles back together, but if you are planning more children, it would be a waste of time, as they would just seperate again with the pregnancy

[jils04]

Exactly.you have to be completely finished your child bearing.
M it is covered in oz after kids as it's called reconstruction. So half off.
Physio does help but if you have a tummy that sticks out bad like mine, then it won't go flat again.bummer

[Bambina]

A friend of mine had the same thing and recently had surgery to fix it and she looks and feels great!

[Hobbermittens]

Mine is awful. I look pregnant all the time. Seriously. Plus I have a herniated belly button. I have looked into surgery, but only the hernia is covered by insurance, so I need to do some serious saving for the rest. I also need a tummy tuck.

[nuthinbutpink]

But can you just sew up the abs and not cut any skin off? I don't think I have that much excess and I don't want that huge scar.

[nuthinbutpink]

I have the belly button thing too:(

[Hobbermittens]

My sister had a "mini tummy tuck" with her ab repair. She really didn't need anything tucked--and her abs were not that bad. But she has a scar way down low, under the bikini area, like they do with a C-sect.

[ashkash]

Same thing happened to me after DS3. From what my midwife told me & what I've read, the only real solution is surgery. I do think I'll do it one day, when I'm done having kids. I'm skinny, & it really sucks to have a big stomach sticking out. It looks like I just never lost all the baby weight, but I did - the tummy just can't be fixed. :(

[nuthinbutpink]

Same thing happened to me after DS3. From what my midwife told me & what I've read, the only real solution is surgery. I do think I'll do it one day, when I'm done having kids. I'm skinny, & it really sucks to have a big stomach sticking out. It looks like I just never lost all the baby weight, but I did - the tummy just can't be fixed. :(

Exactly! And with my protruding belly button, I know some people might wonder if I am pregnant if I don't watch my posture or wear something too fitting. I wear a zero but my belly is not at all. Nothing seems to matter as far as exercise and I've gone to eating salads for a week to see if starvation made a difference. I did lose weight but nothing in my belly!

[nuthinbutpink]

What about sedation and recovery? Are you fully out and intibated? What about lifting afterwards? DS is only 17 months so it doesn't sound realistic at this point.

[ashkash]

I think the surgery has a pretty serious recovery. Not something I'd do with very young kids. I don't think I could do it until they were all old enough to not need to be picked up at all, maybe 4 or 5 years?

[MatildaMai]

I was told it requires a general anaesthetic so fully sedated. 5-7 days in hospital and have to take care with lifting/driving etc for a few wks afterwards. Much like with a c-section.

[nuthinbutpink]

I was told it requires a general anaesthetic so fully sedated. 5-7 days in hospital and have to take care with lifting/driving etc for a few wks afterwards. Much like with a c-section.

Well, if that's the case I guess I'll have to live with my pot belly. No way could I get away with that kind of downtime. I cannot even get to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned.

[Hobbermittens]

My sister had her abs done, tummy tuck ("mini tummy tuck") and a boob job and was home the same day. The recovery was hard, and she said it hurt to laugh for a really long time. But she was really happy with the results!

[MrsLE]

I have been reading and reading all the wonderful insite provided by this forum and the wonderful women that post.
I am starting my ivf pgd journey very very soon with Dr Potter. :)

I wanted to offer my advice and info regarding your tummy. I am a patient coordinator for a plastic surgeon in Newport Beach and been in the business for over 7 years..... so what you are feeling is a diastasis recti. Which is where the center of the abdominal wall was stretch open to accomodate your pregnancy. If the separation is above the belly button it requires a longer incision to be able to address that area. Most patient will remove any loose skin at the same time. Basically the surgeon does a corsetting shoelace type suture down the abdominal wall the pull everything nice and tight again. The results are amazing, but yes the incision is the trade off. In most cases, surgery is the only fix for the separation. And no insurance won't cover the diastasis recti repair. They consider it "Cosmetic".

There at some surgeons offering an endoscopic tummy repair to minimize the incision length in the cases where the women to not have alot of loose skin or stretch marks. Each women is different so therefore the incision varies.

I hope this helps. Please feel to ask any questions. I'll share anything I can :)

[MrsLE]

O and....
Surgery is out patient. Either general or mac anes depending on location and surgeon. You go home after surgery, no hospital stay. Some patients choose to go to a recovery retreat if they don't have help at home. For the first week activity will be very restricted. Walking hunched over like a grandma. Slowly you will be able to stand up and stretch out. After 2 weeks you will be able to get back into normal routine. No working out for 4 weeks.

[Plum3]

I haven't read all the replies so I'm not sure if it has been mentioned but there is an exercise called the Tuppler technique which can improve and in some cases fix the diastasis. If you google it there is heaps of info. Skrimpy knows alot about it so you could PM her as well.

[nuthinbutpink]

O and....
Surgery is out patient. Either general or mac anes depending on location and surgeon. You go home after surgery, no hospital stay. Some patients choose to go to a recovery retreat if they don't have help at home. For the first week activity will be very restricted. Walking hunched over like a grandma. Slowly you will be able to stand up and stretch out. After 2 weeks you will be able to get back into normal routine. No working out for 4 weeks.

Thank you so much for posting. I was afraid it was too significant to be able to pull off. I think I have already spent enough time focusing on what I want anyway in this life so I guess I will just invest in a good girdle. Thank you for the info so I didn't waste anytime on getting a consult. My separation extends all the way up to the bottom of my rib cage. Sounds like that would make things even worse from a recovery perspective.

At least I can just not bother with the working out now! I don't have the energy for it these days anyway.

[HopingForPigtails]

Well, if that's the case I guess I'll have to live with my pot belly. No way could I get away with that kind of downtime. I cannot even get to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned.

Hah!! NBP- me too!! All of it!! I'm 114 lbs, pretty flat stomach except for my lower abs AND my enormous herniated belly button. It looks disgusting! I actually did see a surgeon about it and like PP said, recovery is much like a c section. And I can't ever find time to get my teeth cleaned either!!

[NYFamilyOfFiveRoses]

Thank you so much for posting. I was afraid it was too significant to be able to pull off. I think I have already spent enough time focusing on what I want anyway in this life so I guess I will just invest in a good girdle. Thank you for the info so I didn't waste anytime on getting a consult. My separation extends all the way up to the bottom of my rib cage. Sounds like that would make things even worse from a recovery perspective.

At least I can just not bother with the working out now! I don't have the energy for it these days anyway.

I do not know if this will help because my problem was a different. After my 1st cesarean, I felt my belly was ruined because it looked like I had a tight belt on with the belly coming out. I had with my 1st pregnancy lost all the weight in 6 months (unlike now LOL). Anyway no matter what I wore even regular jeans I had a buldge. It upset me so much because I was aready so destroyed from having a cesarean.

So I went to a few plastic surgeons back then and this one PS I found said he can do a scar revision and some lipo just to get the area flatter. It was not really tightened. It was like a mini, mini, mini little tuck.

I know that you did not have a cesarean.

So liposuction alone may be something that can work. I am not sure because I do not really know what your belly looks like and what exactly you want to fix and how you want it to look.

But my recovery was minimal and my daughter was very young. I had maybe a few days of help and that was it. But back then I only had one child.

I know even really thin people that are like a size 1, zero etc. can still get that belly thing after pregnancies.

After I had the procedure done after my other 2 pregnancies after I loose all the weight I do not have the protruding belly. But right now I cannot seem to get this last 10 pounds off and it makes me depressed and get out less along with the GD. Anyway that is off the subject LOL.

But anyway thought I would share this and I hope it helps.

Maybe just a little lipo? Not sure.

[nuthinbutpink]

Thank you NY for the suggestion. I am sure I could benefit from some lipo! I do want my belly button fixed so I will at least look into that.

[skrimpy]

Ladies have you heard of Julie Tupler's program? The separation is called a diastasis recti and Julie has developed a method to repair it without surgery. I have been following her program and it has made a massively huge difference for me! I had a 4+ finger-width diastasis and it is now down to around a 1!!! My belly looks almost like the washboard it was before I got pg with DD1!!! DH keeps on telling me how fantastic I look :D

I would strongly recommend you look into Julie's program... http://diastasisrehab.com/ ...before considering surgery. At least I knew I did not want to resort to surgery. I was in so much pain after Honor was born b/c of my separation, though, which is why I went looking into alternatives.

[nuthinbutpink]

Ladies have you heard of Julie Tupler's program? The separation is called a diastasis recti and Julie has developed a method to repair it without surgery. I have been following her program and it has made a massively huge difference for me! I had a 4+ finger-width diastasis and it is now down to around a 1!!! My belly looks almost like the washboard it was before I got pg with DD1!!! DH keeps on telling me how fantastic I look :D

I would strongly recommend you look into Julie's program... Diastasis Rehab - The Tupler Technique for Treating a Diastasis Recti (http://diastasisrehab.com/) ...before considering surgery. At least I knew I did not want to resort to surgery. I was in so much pain after Honor was born b/c of my separation, though, which is why I went looking into alternatives.

Are you just wearing that band or doing exercises? What is "the program"?

[skrimpy]

There are exercises that you do, she has a little guidebook that breaks up what you do every week. The exercises are easy to fit into your day. Julie recommends you wear the splint because it pulls the separated muscles together again and makes the exercises more effective. It also protects your muscles during day to day activities.

Here is one of my blog posts about using the Tupler technique: http://blog.naturalbirthandbabycare.com/splinting-and-noticing/

I need to do an update on how it has gone for me because I haven't done one in ages. Plus they have totally redesigned the splint and it's much better now.

I will not sugar-cost it for you gals, it has been a lot of work and the splints (old and new) haven't been a joy to wear. But the results are unmistakable and I feel so much better about myself. Plus, no more pain. Now that I have lost so much baby weight from Honor I am hoping I will be able to completely get that washboard tummy back... Something I never thought I'd say after five babies! I will keep doing the Tuplers if we are able to get pg again, too... My hope is that my next pregnancy will be much less painful than Honor's.

So it's a lot of work, but way better than surgery IMO...

Here's another good blog to check out, this is one of the certified trainer's blogs: http://www.beautifulafterthebelly.blogspot.com/

[nuthinbutpink]

Ok. Thanks. I'll give it a try. Surgery isn't an option and if this helps it will be great. Thank you!

[Hobbermittens]

Skrimpy, I am glad you posted this! I would LOVE to try this after we have our last baby. I can't afford surgery, as much as I would love to do it--I need a tummy tuck and a hernia repair, but I think it will cost about 10K with the ab repair as well, which is just not feasible for us. So I will be giving this method a try.

[nuthinbutpink]

Skrimpy, I am glad you posted this! I would LOVE to try this after we have our last baby. I can't afford surgery, as much as I would love to do it--I need a tummy tuck and a hernia repair, but I think it will cost about 10K with the ab repair as well, which is just not feasible for us. So I will be giving this method a try.

I'll be happy to pass the splint and dvd along when I am done!

[Hobbermittens]

I'll be happy to pass the splint and dvd along when I am done!

That would be great!!!! Thank you!!

[atomic sagebrush]

I had that after Tate because I had the flu and coughed a lot at 6 months but it resolved after I had him. It looked freaky and it HURT. I hope someone has a non-surgical answer for you.

[purplepoet20]

Mine is awful. I look pregnant all the time. Seriously. Plus I have a herniated belly button. I have looked into surgery, but only the hernia is covered by insurance, so I need to do some serious saving for the rest. I also need a tummy tuck.

I have the same thing... herniated belly, look preg, and I hate it!

[purplepoet20]

I did some research on that a few days ago and...

Doing different types of ab workouts help, they mentioned Zumba because of the movements you do. You can't just do sit ups but you have to do different positons that workout the entire stomach, sides, and back. I told my hubby and he ordered Zumba before he left for work.. for after #3 or if I am not preg and wanted to loose weight before trying again.

[Cass]

Hi ladies,

So, did anyone have any success with closing their diastasis?

I have a 5+ finger width separation and am really struggling to get it closed. I tried the Tupler Technique for five months with little success. I have now started with a personal trainer so I hope that we can make some progress before I start TTC or at least keep it under control whilst I am pregnant.

I am also petite and look like I am half way through a pregnancy :sad:

[Emily]

[QUOTE=Cass;239308]Hi ladies,

So, did anyone have any success with closing their diastasis?

Yes! Mine was about 5 fingers too. I googles diastasis exercises and found lots (some with video) and also did a Devina McCall DVD which tells you how to adapt normal sit ups etc. I'm down to about a finger and a half now but also seem to have build up some muscle over the gap so it doesn't stick out at all. I'm 20 months post partum and worked on my muscles from about 2 months pp to 9 months pp.

Good luck!:luck:

[BabyCakesTor]

I am definitely going in for the Mommy Makeover after we have our 4th :) it's sad when I look at my stomach and see the pouch...