If you’re months or even years postpartum and still have a visible “pooch” or doming down the middle of your stomach that doesn’t respond to normal core exercise, you may be dealing with diastasis recti — abdominal separation. It’s extremely common in pregnancy, and while it often improves naturally, many women are left unsure whether theirs has fully healed, or what to do if it hasn’t.
What Diastasis Recti Actually Is
Diastasis recti is a widening of the linea alba — the connective tissue running down the midline of your abdomen — that occurs as your growing uterus stretches your abdominal wall during pregnancy. To some degree, it happens in almost every pregnancy; it’s a normal, expected part of how your body accommodates a growing baby.
The question isn’t whether it happened, but how well it’s recovering.
Signs You May Have an Ongoing Separation
- A visible ridge or doming down the centre of your stomach, especially when sitting up from lying down
- A soft, “gap” feeling when you press along the midline of your abdomen
- Ongoing lower back pain or a feeling of core weakness or instability
- A stomach that still looks noticeably pregnant despite time passing and no significant weight change
Why a Self-Check at Home Isn’t Enough
Plenty of guides show you how to check for diastasis recti at home by feeling along your midline. This is a reasonable starting point, but it only tells you the width of the gap — not its depth, tension, or how well the connective tissue is actually functioning under load, which matters far more for your recovery and exercise planning than width alone.
Two women with an identical-looking gap can need very different treatment approaches.
What a Proper Assessment Adds
A women’s health physiotherapist assesses not just the gap itself, but how your deep core system is functioning as a whole — your breathing pattern, pelvic floor coordination, and how well your abdominal wall manages pressure during everyday movements like lifting, coughing, or getting up from the floor.
This gives a far more accurate picture of what’s actually needed.
What Helps
Contrary to old advice, generic “core” exercises like sit-ups and crunches are usually not the right starting point and can sometimes worsen symptoms.
Effective treatment typically involves retraining the deep core system in the correct order — breath, pelvic floor, and deep abdominal engagement — before progressively rebuilding load tolerance, often bridging into supervised physio-led Pilates as strength returns.
Not sure if your separation has fully healed? Book a postnatal assessment in Handforth and get a proper, individual answer.