Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Pregosaurus

Also known as Diastasis Recti.

Cornfed, these pics are for you!

Most of you expressed either disgust or shock when I said my stomach muscles had begun to separate.

Or ignorance.  In that you'd never even heard of the phenomenon.

I agree that this is one of those things that they like to keep pregnant women in the dark about.

It's not mentioned anywhere in What to Expect When You're Expecting except as a postpartum symptom...ahem why not mention it when it's happening as well as what to do after it's happened?

And as far as I can tell thebump.com, fitpregnancy.com, and the one million and 7 other pregnancy websites don't mention it either.

When you google it you get some rather disgusting piccies of SEVERE diastasis recti in which the muscles have fully separated and it's just SCARY.

For the record, that's not the norm, that's the exception.

To which I say, WTF?  It happens in roughly 60-70% of pregnancies, and a higher percentage of twin/multiples pregnancies, that's a huge number to just completely ignore the phenomenon all together.

Also women themselves seem to be pretty mum about it.  When I mentioned it most people said they didn't notice it had happened if it had or that they'd never even heard of it.  Very few people spoke up and said it HAD happened to them. 

So, I thought I would show you guys what it looks like.

It doesn't hurt even though it sounds painful.  I mean your muscles are SEPARATING, surely that should be painful!

It's not.

According to my yoga instructor it's very normal to happen even if you don't notice it and as long as the ligaments in between the two muscle groups don't stretch out too far, as in beyond their capacity to stretch, then it really shouldn't be a problem getting things back together after baby.

Here's mine at 27 weeks.


Normal Pregnant Lady Belly


Watch out for the Pregosaurus!

Hahaha!  Oh it cracks me up just looking at it.  

Maybe not to you guys but every time I see it I think of a dinosaur. LOL.  All I'm doing in the pregosaurus picture is lifting myself up with my stomach ie. using my stomach muscles.

And in case anyone is interested the only thing you can really do about it DURING pregnancy is continue to strengthen your transverse abdominal muscles LIGHTLY, nothing strenuous!  There's some yoga moves that are super easy and supposed to be good for the old diastisis recti situation.  One of them is honestly the belly dancer sway, seriously, swaying your hips in a figure eight.  How easy is that?

But generally speaking like all pregnancy symptoms it usually resolves itself after the birth with little effort.

I will obviously update you guys at the end of pregnancy and see how bad it gets and I will also keep everyone posted about how quickly it goes back to normal postpartum!

So, now that you've all seen it, anyone else experiencing this phenomenon I've dubbed The Pregosaurus???

13 comments:

  1. OMG! That's crazy and definitely dinosaur-like hahahaha. I'll be interested to see how this saga continues :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm so glad you posted pictures! I had no idea what to look for if/when it starts happening to me. I'm expanding so quickly I don't see how I can prevent it, even though I go to yoga twice a week. In one month I went from not really looking pregnant to looking like 6 months pregnant!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, with the twins I don't know if you can escape it completely, but keep up with the yoga, hopefully that helps!

      Delete
  3. Very interesting and not at all what I expected. I was thinking we'd see some major "valley" line... Hmm.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have had that same thing since about 13 weeks. Obviously on a much smaller scale. Glad to know what it is.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mine separated, and far as I can tell, they went back.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Okay, I think I have had this my whole life. Off to go google if that is even possible. This happens every time I use my stomach muscles, and it's much worse than your pregosaur. I figured this out when I was like 10. Ah, man!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hmm, that is a little freakish. I am not am not at all anticipating having this problem, as my ab muscles were pretty much non-existent to begin with!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I can confirm that I have the exact same thing! I knew that it might be coming as a few of my former pregnant friends told me about it so I was on the look out. Low and behold a few weeks ago I was in the bath and went to lift myself out and I looked down and I saw exactly what you are referring to! It happened just before I read your first post about it. We have dinosaur abs! hehe

    ReplyDelete
  9. Whew, that is not nearly as terrifying as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, I'm still freaked out about it, but I was worried the sight would make me gag or something (note: I will not be googling it just in case.) Such a cute belly! Even when the pregosaurus comes out!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I've been meaning to blog about this and mention it to you, I too have the pregosaurus-symptom!! LOL. I noticed a few weeks ago that I get a line running up and down my tummy when I use my stomach muscles. I'm not sure if it is as pronounced as yours, but it is definitely there.

    ReplyDelete