We know pregnancy is one of the most common causes of diastasis. But it’s more than just the expanding belly that make the recti muscles come apart. Relaxin, a hormone that is produced in the placenta, also plays key a role here. As its name suggest, relaxin is the hormone responsible for the whole “loosey-goosey” feeling your body gets during pregnancy, giving it the ability to accommodate a baby living inside you and all the blood volume it takes to accommodate that. Everything relaxes, softens and expands, from the pelvis to the intrauterine ligaments to the arteries…right down to the linea alba.
While the relaxin-effect is good for a lot of things—namely for getting comfortable with a baby using your body as living quarters and for getting that baby out of those quarters—there are some drawbacks. As your joints loosen up and ankles become wobbly, clumsiness often peaks, and you have to be especially careful to avoid falls. But it’s the connective tissue we really need to focus on. For starters, pregnant women become even more prone to backaches due to the lack of firm abdominal support. Adding to that equation, not only do you now have a fetus pressing on your connective tissue from within, stretching it out, but the connective tissue itself suddenly takes on a new elasticity it never had before. If you happen to already have a diastasis, it’s going to get bigger with each pregnancy. Oy!
Pregnancy puts you at risk for the separation of your abdominal muscles. A diastasis can make it harder to push your baby out. If you unknowingly had one before pregnancy, it may become even more pronounced now. A clue that you did, in fact, have one would be if you start showing really fast. The separation may worsen as your uterus grows and pushes out on the connective tissue. So the goal during your pregnancy is to keep the diastasis as small as possible by doing the Tupler Technique® exercises.
To learn more about Diastasis Recti & the Tupler Technique® read this article: DIASTASIS RECTI RESEARCH AND EVIDENCED BASED EXERCISE PROGRAM
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Watch the short video below to know what a diastasis is.
