Diastasis recti recovery: what it is and how to rehabilitate

Postnatal · Postnatal recovery · Updated July 2026 · All articles

You might have noticed a soft ridge running down the middle of your tummy when you try to sit up, or realised that your back has been aching in a way it never used to, or simply felt like your core is just... not quite there. If any of this sounds familiar, diastasis recti is very likely part of what is going on.

The name sounds alarming. The reality is far more manageable. Diastasis recti affects virtually every woman to some degree by the end of pregnancy, most cases improve significantly in the first weeks after birth without any specific treatment, and with appropriate rehabilitation the vast majority of women recover to a point where it no longer affects their day-to-day life. This article explains what is happening, how to check yourself, and what actually helps.

What diastasis recti is

Your rectus abdominis, the muscle you might think of as the "six-pack" muscle, runs in two vertical strips down the front of your abdomen, one on each side of your midline. These two strips are connected along the centre by a band of connective tissue called the linea alba.

During pregnancy, your growing uterus pushes these two strips apart. The linea alba stretches and widens to accommodate this. This is a completely normal and necessary part of pregnancy, not a failure or injury. The process is also aided by relaxin, a hormone that softens connective tissue throughout pregnancy to allow the body to expand and prepare for birth.

Diastasis recti (sometimes called diastasis rectus abdominis, or DRAM) is the name given to the separation that results when the linea alba has widened and thinned significantly enough to affect the function of the core system. It is measured in two ways: the width of the gap between the two muscle bellies (usually described in finger-widths or centimetres), and the depth, which reflects whether the linea alba still has functional tension or has become soft and unsupported. Both measurements matter, but as you will see below, the depth, or rather the quality of the tissue, matters more than the width alone.

How common is it

Very common. Research consistently shows that close to 100% of women have some degree of abdominal separation by the third trimester of pregnancy. This is not a complication. It is a normal response to pregnancy.

In the first eight weeks after birth, most of that separation reduces spontaneously as relaxin levels fall, the uterus contracts, and the body begins to remodel. By around six months, roughly one third of women still have a separation that is clinically significant enough to benefit from specific rehabilitation. By twelve months, with appropriate exercise and support, the proportion with persistent significant separation is smaller still.

The key message is this: having diastasis recti does not mean your body is broken. It means your body did something extraordinary and is now in the process of recovering from it.

How to check yourself

You can do a simple self-check at home from around six to eight weeks after birth. Here is how.

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
2. Place two or three fingers horizontally across your midline, just at the level of your navel.
3. Slowly and gently raise your head and shoulders off the floor, as if you are beginning a crunch. Do not strain. Just a small lift.
4. Notice what you feel under your fingers.

A gap of more than roughly two finger-widths suggests some degree of separation. But equally important is what the tissue underneath feels like. Does it feel firm and springy? Or does it feel soft and mushy, with your fingers sinking in as if there is very little resistance? That quality, which researchers describe as linea alba "tension" or "stiffness", is what determines whether the separation is functionally significant.

You can also check just above the navel and a few centimetres below it, since separation can be greater in one area than another.

Why width alone does not tell the whole story

This is probably the most important thing to understand about diastasis recti, and it is the thing that gets misreported most often.

A gap of three finger-widths that feels firm and supportive under your fingers is often less functionally significant than a gap of two finger-widths that feels completely mushy and unsupported. What matters is whether the linea alba can still generate tension and contribute to the core system, not just how wide the gap is.

Researchers Diane Lee and Linda-Joy Lee, who have published extensively on this topic, have emphasised that it is the load transfer capacity of the linea alba, its ability to help distribute forces through the core, rather than the width of separation, that determines how much the separation is actually affecting your body. A woman with a wide but well-tensioned separation may have excellent core function. A woman with a narrow but completely unsupported gap may be struggling considerably.

This matters in practice because it means that the finger-width self-check is a starting point, not a diagnosis, and because it means that buying a binder or splint based purely on gap width is unlikely to address what is actually happening.

Symptoms to be aware of

Diastasis recti does not always announce itself with an obvious tummy bulge. Some of the signs are less direct.

• A dome or cone shape along the midline. When you try to sit up or lift your legs, you may see a ridge or dome pushing upward rather than a flat or hollowing response. This is the most visible sign.
• Lower back pain. The deep core muscles, including the transverse abdominis and pelvic floor, work together to stabilise the spine. When the linea alba is weakened, this system becomes less effective, and the load shifts to the back muscles instead. Back pain after birth that does not have another clear cause is very often linked to core instability.
• A persistent soft bulge at the midline. Sometimes called "mummy tummy", this is often described as looking or feeling like you are still slightly pregnant even months after birth. It is not fat, it is the result of the linea alba not providing enough support to hold the contents of the abdomen in.
• Pelvic floor symptoms. Diastasis recti and pelvic floor dysfunction often co-exist, because they are part of the same core system. Leaking, urgency, or pelvic heaviness alongside a separation is worth mentioning to a pelvic health physiotherapist.
• Poor posture. With the front of the core less able to support load, you may find yourself leaning back or arching your lower back more, especially when carrying or standing for long periods.

Exercises to avoid in the early postnatal period

In the first few months after birth, there is a category of movements that significantly increase intra-abdominal pressure and can worsen separation or slow the healing of the linea alba. These are not things you need to avoid forever, but they are worth holding off on until your core has the underlying support to handle them.

• Sit-ups and crunches. These are the most important to avoid. They create a strong flexion force at the midline that pushes intra-abdominal pressure outward, exactly where you want the linea alba to be resisting load, before it is ready to do so.
• Double-leg raises. Lifting both legs together from lying flat creates a substantial lever force that the weakened core cannot manage safely in the early postnatal period.
• Pilates hundreds and similar exercises. Exercises that hold a raised head and shoulders while the legs are extended or moving, creating a prolonged core compression, are generally too demanding too early.
• Heavy lifting with breath-holding. Holding your breath while lifting (the Valsalva manoeuvre) sharply increases intra-abdominal pressure. When lifting your baby, a bag, or anything else, breathe out on the effort instead.
• Exercises that cause the midline to dome. Whatever the movement, if you can see or feel a ridge or dome forming along your midline during it, that is your body's signal that the demand is too high right now. Reduce the load or modify the exercise.

It is also worth being mindful of how you get out of bed. Rolling onto your side and pushing up with your arms (rather than coming straight up from lying flat) reduces the load on the midline with every single repetition, and in those first weeks you will be getting in and out of bed many dozens of times a day.

What actually helps

Rehabilitation for diastasis recti starts much more simply than most people expect. The foundation is not a set of core exercises. It is learning to breathe properly again.

Diaphragmatic (360-degree) breathing

During pregnancy, the growing uterus changes how the diaphragm moves and how the core manages pressure. Many women end up breathing in a pattern that is more shallow and chest-dominant. Relearning to breathe with the full rib cage, sometimes called 360-degree breathing, is the starting point for everything else.

To practise it, sit or lie comfortably and breathe in through your nose, imagining your ribs expanding in all directions: sideways, forward and back, and down toward your hips. As you breathe out slowly through your mouth, notice a gentle drawing in and upward of your lower abdominal muscles. This should not be a strong muscular effort. It is a gentle, coordinated response. This pattern, breath in to release, breath out to gently engage, is the foundation of safe core rehabilitation.

Pelvic floor activation

The pelvic floor and the deep abdominal muscles work as a system. Gentle pelvic floor exercises in the first days and weeks after birth, even before the separation has been assessed, help restore the coordination of this system. Think of it as a gentle lift and squeeze, released fully between contractions, rather than a hard grip held under strain.

Gentle transverse abdominis activation

The transverse abdominis is the deepest layer of abdominal muscle, running like a corset around the sides and front of your trunk. It is one of the primary stabilisers of the spine and pelvis, and its activation is closely linked to breathing. You activate it gently when you breathe out during 360-degree breathing. With practice, you can learn to engage it more deliberately: a gentle drawing in of the lower abdomen, below the navel, without holding your breath and without the midline doming. This muscle, not the rectus abdominis, is the target of early diastasis recti rehabilitation.

Walking

Walking is genuinely useful and often overlooked. It loads the core dynamically, encourages normal breathing patterns, and is appropriate from the very earliest days after birth. Starting with shorter distances and building gradually gives your body a whole-system rehabilitation stimulus without the risks of higher-intensity core work.

Progressing gradually

Rehabilitation is a progression. Once diaphragmatic breathing and gentle transverse abdominis activation feel natural, you can begin building in more demanding movements, always checking that the midline is not doming and that the pelvic floor is responding well. The progression typically goes from lying, to sitting, to standing, to dynamic load, over weeks and months rather than days.

Rehabilitation is individual

There is a frustrating amount of conflicting advice about diastasis recti, and some of it is based on outdated ideas about gap width being the only measure that matters. What research, and the clinicians who work in this area, consistently emphasises is that rehabilitation needs to be individual.

What helps one woman may not help another. The location of the separation, the degree of tension in the linea alba, the presence or absence of pelvic floor symptoms, how much sleep you are getting, what your load looks like at home, all of these affect what the right programme is for you specifically.

A pelvic health physiotherapist can assess the actual functional quality of your separation and prescribe a programme based on what they find, rather than based on a number of finger-widths from a self-check. If you have any symptoms, or if you are unsure how to progress, this is the most useful investment you can make in your recovery.

Timeline and what to expect

The postnatal period is one of the most significant periods of physical healing in a person's life, and it deserves time.

In the first six to eight weeks, most spontaneous improvement in separation happens. In the six to twelve months that follow, appropriate rehabilitation can produce meaningful additional recovery. Many women who are still bothered by symptoms at six months find that consistent, appropriate rehabilitation over the following months makes a significant difference.

Progress is rarely linear. There will be weeks where things feel better and weeks where, perhaps because of a disrupted sleep phase or a period of higher physical load, they feel harder. That is normal.

Very severe cases, with a very wide, deep, and unsupported separation that is causing significant pain or functional limitation, may benefit from a referral to a specialist, and in a small number of cases surgical repair (abdominoplasty with plication of the linea alba) is considered. But this is uncommon and is a last resort after appropriate rehabilitation has been given a real chance.

When to see a pelvic health physiotherapist

You do not need to wait until something is clearly wrong to see a pelvic health physiotherapist. A single assessment in the early postnatal weeks can give you a personalised starting point and prevent months of uncertainty about whether you are doing the right things.

It is worth seeking an assessment if:

• You can feel a gap of more than roughly two finger-widths, especially if the tissue feels soft and unsupported.
• You have lower back pain or pelvic floor symptoms alongside abdominal changes.
• You can see a dome or ridge along your midline when you try to sit up.
• You are planning to return to exercise and want to know how to do it safely.
• You are at six to eight weeks postnatal and your symptoms have not clearly improved.

In the UK you can ask your GP for a referral to NHS pelvic health physiotherapy at your six-week postnatal check. Waiting times vary by area, so if the wait is long, many women access private pelvic health physiotherapy directly. The Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy (POGP) directory at pogp.csp.org.uk is a good place to find a specialist.

What not to do

There is a lot of marketing around diastasis recti that is not well grounded in current evidence. A few things worth steering clear of.

• Do not buy an abdominal splint or binder as your first step. Splints are sometimes recommended by specialists in specific circumstances, but buying one without assessment because you have read it will "close the gap" is not supported by evidence. A splint does not address the underlying function of the linea alba, and wearing one can actually reduce the sensory feedback your core needs to reconnect.
• Do not assume the six-week check is clearance for everything. The standard six-week check in the UK does not include assessment of diastasis recti, and in most cases it does not assess core or pelvic floor function. Being told you are fine at six weeks does not mean you are ready for crunches.
• Do not compare your recovery to social media timelines. What you see online, the six-week "transformation" photos, the influencer who was doing burpees at eight weeks, has almost no relevance to your body and your separation. Comparison in this area is genuinely unhelpful and frequently inaccurate.
• Do not assume it is permanent if it is taking time. Diastasis recti recovery takes months, not weeks. A separation that is still significant at three or four months is not stuck. It is still in a phase where meaningful improvement is very possible.

A note on "mummy tummy"

The soft pouch or persistent bump that many women notice at the midline after birth is often described in unhelpful terms in popular culture, as a problem to be fixed or erased. It is worth being clear: this is a structural change that reflects how the linea alba and deep core are functioning, and in most cases it reduces as rehabilitation progresses. But the goal of rehabilitation is restoring function, reducing pain, and supporting your body in the things you want to do. It is not about the appearance of your tummy, and it is not a measure of how good a parent you are or how well you are recovering.

Your body grew a human being. Give it the same patience you give everything else that is new right now.

Frequently asked questions

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