Whether you are newly postpartum or have had multiple babies before realizing you have diastasis recti, I want you to know there is hope! No matter how long ago you had a baby, there are things you can do to heal your ab separation. In this guide, I’m sharing everything I’ve done (as a second-time mom) to heal diastasis recti naturally.
I’ll start off by saying that I felt very discouraged after I had my oldest. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t lose the “mom pooch.” I ate healthily and exercised often but for some reason my belly never returned to it’s pre-pregnancy shape.
I then got pregnant with our second at 14 months postpartum…… and went through an ENTIRE pregnancy before realizing that I had diastasis recti. I was screened for it at my 6 week check-up, but she assured me that it wasn’t bad and things would go back to normal.
By 9 months postpartum, I started looking for answers and realized that I had diastasis recti. It’s only been a few months, but I’m seeing such a HUGE improvement… so I thought I’d share everything I’ve done to heal diastasis recti naturally!
How to Heal Diastasis Recti Naturally
When you are trying to heal diastasis recti naturally, you will focus on exercises that strengthen your pelvic floor. It’s important to stay away from crunches, sit-ups, and planks because they can actually make your ab separation worse.
#1 Get Familiar with Your Separation
Before we get into all the ways you can start healing your abs, I found it really helpful to feel the separation. Throughout my healing journey, I would occasionally check to see if I felt any improvement. Here is the video I found most helpful:
I think that it’s important to have a starting point, so you don’t get discouraged. The process has been slow, so keep that in mind, but when you start to notice healing you will want to continue going!
#2 Focus on Healing the Connective Tissue
Just as I told you to get familiar with your separation, I’m going to say that it doesn’t really matter. Confusing I know, but hang with me!
The tissue that holds your abs together is actually what matters because what we need to be focusing on is how well we can control them. I found this video incredibly helpful to explain this:
#3 Posture is Important
I started going to a Chiropractor during the second trimester of my second pregnancy and I learned SO much about our posture contributes to diastasis recti.
I’ve heard many gurus talk about tucking the pelvis and keeping everything “in line.” Which I thought meant sucking everything in. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.
This video I found helpful in helping me learn how to have proper alignment:
#4 Belly Wrap
I wish I knew about this sooner, so if you are newly postpartum, I highly recommend looking into wearing a belly wrap! This is going to help everything contract and hopefully help your tummy shrink back down.
I’ve found Dr. Jena Bradley to be incredibly helpful! She primarily focuses on postpartum and diastasis recti. You can read her blog here.
#5 Notice Your Movements in Everyday Life
I didn’t realize how many things I was doing on a daily basis that was hindering the healing process. One tip that I picked up from GlowBodyPT on Youtube was the way we should pick up our babies. Here is the video for a demonstration:
#6 Use Supportive Pillows when Nursing
Being a second-time mom, I fell into the trap of I need to nurse now. I no longer took the time to set up my nursing space to be supportive for my body.
I found this article by Emily Flynn to be super helpful in finding a position that would help me to heal properly.
#7 It’s All About the Pelvic Floor
When I first started researching how to heal diastasis recti naturally, I felt like all I heard was pull in your belly button. To be truthful, I felt like I had been doing that….. so why wasn’t I seeing progress?!
That’s when my chiropractor mentioned that it really had to do with my pelvic floor. I started following this workout by Lauren Fitter and I really noticed a HUGE difference just a week after! I feel like most of her exercises focus on the pelvic floor, which I really appreciate.
#8 Bowspring
I had never heard of this until Kori Meloy shared about it, but this has been life-changing for me! I do believe this has been a huge helper in my healing journey.
It’s all about opening the body and bringing awareness to your posture. There are a few instructors out there but I found Samantha Simpson and Amanda with glow.bOw.grow to be the most helpful.
#9 Feel Your Core as You Workout
For a long time, I was confused when I heard experts say “do what feels good” or “listen to your body.” Honestly, I wasn’t pushing myself enough because I didn’t know how far I could go!
In Kendra Fitzgerald’s video The Two Missing Links to Your Diastasis Recti Repair she talks about actually feeling your core throughout your workout! This was definitely a game-changer for me.
#10 Try a Myofascial Release
I’ve learned more about fascia in the last year in regard to my daughters tongue and lip ties, but I never realized that it was affecting my diastasis recti!
I found this video to be helpful in helping to release fascia and heal diastasis recti:
#11 Sleeping Positions for Healing
After I started co-sleeping with my daughter (read about our co-sleeping setup here) I stopped using a pillow between my legs. It felt like one more thing to think about when I was already exhausted. I really wish I had made this a priority though.
Check out this video for all the best sleeping positions for diastasis recti:
My Thoughts…
I hope this article has given you hope that you can find healing with diastasis recti. It’s definitely not an easy journey, but there is so much more than working out that can be done to bring your abs back together. No matter how long postpartum you are, I hope these tips on how to heal your diastasis recti naturally helps you to start feeling more like yourself!
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