Mommy belly, peeing your pants, and “your stomach feeling weird” is no joke, it’s serious. Stop ignoring that nagging voice that something is wrong. I’ve breeched almost 9lb babies three times and I’m a pretty tough athlete so I like to train hard but I’m over this. One of our members, Jeanette had an incredible transformation restoring her very large 4 toes (4 of my toes are more like 5+ for a normal person). Her story is amazing and inspiring.
4+ Finger Diastasis Success Story
Moms come to us and all they want to do is “get back in shape.” Six weeks is the green light from the doctor and I have to pull them back hard and train them to make it easier to recover smarter. Many of these women don’t want to hear it because all they want to do is train hard and get their “pre-baby body” back.
It’s my job to educate you and postpartum assessment is highly encouraged before exercise and most women don’t know or want to admit that “we have rectal or pelvic floor dysfunction and we might pee our pants. I have evaluated women after they were cleared by a doctor who said they were “fine” and found a significant difference. Be your own advocate. Both issues are common postpartum but not normal. To those of you saying “well I had a c-section so it wouldn’t affect me”, that’s wrong. Don’t just live with it or accept it, do something about it.
Breaking the Diastasis Bad News
I remember the day clearly. Jeanette was happy in class doing basic work and I noticed some distress and weakness. I went to ask if I could assess her for dimension. I knew he had some pretty bad news and what I would find wouldn’t be good. During my assessment all I could think was “she’s going to feel so discouraged when I tell her she has a 4+ toe with bad tension”. To all the fitness professionals out there who are afraid to be honest for fear of losing business, never be afraid to evaluate and report when needed. It is your duty and because of it, they will come back to you. Referral of a client with severe pelvic floor dissociation or dysfunction should always be your first priority.
Postpartum diastasis recti
Like many moms, Jeanette was too shy to take pictures of her belly exposed. This is the photo that Jeanette found most closely resembled her postpartum self.
Here is Jeanette’s story. What an inspiration!
“My journey with F4F started in July 2012, I had a 5 month old daughter and was looking for a place to exercise with my baby and meet some new people. After several months I looked firmer and better than ever, and felt amazing too!
In 2013 I got pregnant again and was determined to keep going to class. In the middle of plank I realized my core failed and I couldn’t help myself, I left the class in tears. This was the last class I attended as I found out shortly after that I was pregnant with twins and would have to be careful.
TWINS!
In November 2013 I had my twins, a boy and a girl, who were born full term and I was officially counting down to my 6 week check up so I could go back to pushchair classes and it just so happened it’s also the start of a new year. Can you say New Year’s Resolution? I went for my check up and everything was fine, even my concerns about my “weird looking and feeling stomach” went away, the doctor said “it will go back to normal in time”. So I started back on F4F and signed up for a Boot Camp class at a Community Centre, I worked hard to prove to myself that I could do it but soon I looked like I was 5 months pregnant and even worse I had all these other issues, like peeing my pants, back pain and general stomach aches.
Diagnosis of Dimension
Trina came up to me in Cart class while I was doing basic work, and gave me a modification and asked if she could talk to me after class. After class that day Trina checked me for a dissection and informed me I had a 4 toe separation, this devastated me but with Trina’s help I started seeing a pelvic floor physical therapist.
After months of doing the prescribed exercises and wearing a brace, I was able to start seeing a postpartum physical therapist, now after a year I am in a 1 and 1/2 gap in my toes and all my other symptoms have also disappear. On leave to exercise, I started at F4F and realized how much I missed Trina’s classes and inspiring attitude. Healing my Dimension is an ongoing process and along the way I have learned many new things about core health and been disappointed once or twice with my process. My advice to any mum is if you think you have a dilation or have no idea what a dilation is, ask Trina when you start the class, you’ll be glad you did!” – Janet
Jeanette, BEFORE AND AFTER
Dimension Before and After *Jeanette on the right
Jeanette now!
Most of the time, my postpartum moms don’t want to hear what I tell them about slow and steady. Once they accept the reality and realize that this can be helped, they are on board. I am proud to be one of the only Fitness Professionals and Bellies Inc. Trainers in Hamilton specializing in identification, assessment, rehabilitation assistance and referral to a pelvic floor physiotherapist. We have had a lot of success helping clients and Jeanette is one of the strongest Members in our class because her core control, awareness and strength is proof that recovery works. It hasn’t been an easy road and she’s still making adjustments that we put on her, but she’s a champion and has healed her dissection to an incredible level. Ladies there is hope, you just have to compromise, get an evaluation and start rehabbing for the best tummy there is.
I wrote two great articles to help. It’s not okay to pee your pants and why I still have a mummy belly. Book a postnatal assessment with Fit4Females or contact us and we can refer you to a pelvic floor physiotherapist. Stay tuned for the next Mummy Tummy Tuning Workshop. We are here to help!
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