Some need-to-know info on abdominal separation 🌟
It sounds like such a scary thing, but once you understand what’s going on and why, it becomes a little easier.
I’ve had so many postnatal clients over the years want to just bury their head in the sand over this, but there is honestly so much you can do to maintain or regain core tension if you have abdominal separation.
Like most things in pregnancy, this isn’t discussed very widely and can seem really overwhelming, but knowledge is power!
The Need-To-Knows
Firstly, abdominal separation is totally normal, to be expected, and doesn’t mean your body is broken!
- There’s a line of tissue down the midline of our six-pack muscle called the linea alba.
- This line of tissue will often stretch in pregnancy to allow room for growth.
- Your six-pack muscle won’t actually break apart, but when the linea alba stretches it will lose tension and can often feel like it is.
- After you’ve given birth, your linea alba might regain tension on its own, or it might not.
- There’s no right and wrong.
- It might feel like you’ve lost all core tension, particularly if you’re still breastfeeding and the hormone relaxin is still in your system.
- Try and avoid Crunch or Sit-Up type movements – these can make it dome.
- Aim to roll onto your side and push yourself up when you go from lying to sitting in day to day life.
- There are so many ways you can increase the tension in your linea alba – and that’s the important thing to do.
- Tension and function, not whether the gap closes or not.
I go into more detail on this in my new Postnatal Foundations Course – if you’ve found this helpful, you can view the course content or drop me a message and I’ll be happy to help 🙂