Going through postpartum is hard enough. The last thing you want to do is deal with any unwanted issues. Diastasis Recti and pelvic floor disfunction are things I never knew about until I had my son. I had friends and family who had kids before I did and there was never one mention about it.
At around 8 months postpartum I found myself dealing with excruciating back pain. To the point where I couldn’t do the dishes for five minutes. I couldn’t lay down comfortably without having pain.
I didn’t think much of it at the time because I had an emergency c-section. To me the back pain was because I went through that.
It never dawned on me that I was dealing with Diastasis Recti. My six week appointment came and my doctor never mentioned anything about that to me.
So I assumed I was ready to go back to normal activities which included working out. That was a big mistake on my part. Little did I know that doing strenuous workouts when your body hasn’t fully recovered is a big no no.
Instead of ‘bouncing back’ my core and pelvic floor got worse. All the high impact workouts I did didn’t help. My diastasis recti was at one point a three and four finger width with little to no tension which isn’t good.
It took me a good year and a half to get back to a point where I felt comfortable doing normal activities and working out the way I use to without feeling like I was hindering my progress.
I don’t say this to scare you, but to inform you that it’s not an easy recovery. It does take time.
Don’t be like me and get back to high impact workouts without fully recovering. You need time to heal your core and pelvic floor and the six weeks just isn’t enough.
What I Would Do Differently If I Were On A Postpartum Journey
- I would take the time to heal. Don’t rush your postpartum recovery. I don’t think we realize just how much work it took our body to make a little human being. Six weeks to go back to normal activities just isn’t enough time. Listen to your body.
- Go see a Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist. This is something everyone should go see after giving birth. This would’ve saved me so much time if I would have known about them. They specialize in all things pelvic floor and diastasis recti and so much more. You’d be surprised how stress and other parts of your body affect your pelvic floor.
- I would make sure I wasn’t doing workout moves that are going to make things worse. Did you know certain workout moves can worsen your core and pelvic floor if not done properly? Well I didn’t and it made my postpartum recovery worse. Do you leak when you jump? Do you cone when doing certain exercises? If so skip them.
I am by no means a specialist when it comes to diastasis recti and the pelvic floor I am just a mother who dealt with this.
I am here sharing what I have learned in hopes that no other women goes through this like I did. It wasn’t fun at all having to recover from that.
I hope this was helpful to some of you. If you ever feel like something isn’t right with your body go see a Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist. You wont regret it. Even if you don’t think you need to it’s very beneficial to see one.
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