How do I know if I have diastasis recti?

You can check at home in about a minute: lie on your back with your knees bent, lift your head slightly, and press your fingers into the midline above, at and below your navel — if your fingers sink into a soft gap wider than roughly two finger-widths, you probably have some degree of diastasis recti, meaning the two halves of your rectus abdominis have separated along the connective tissue seam down your midline. The gap width is the least useful thing you will measure, and no exercise programme can honestly promise to close it.

The short version: some separation is near-universal at the end of pregnancy and most of it narrows in the first few months on its own; what you train is tension and pressure control, not the gap; breathing, pelvic floor coordination and progressively loaded full-body strength are what help; and doming, leaking, heaviness or a bulge that does not flatten are reasons to see a pelvic health physiotherapist rather than to train harder.

How do I check for diastasis recti at home?

The finger-width test, step by step

• Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat, head resting down. Do this on a firm surface, not a soft bed.
• Place two or three fingers flat along your midline just above your navel, fingertips pointing towards your feet.
• Breathe out and lift your head and shoulders a few centimetres — just enough to feel the abdominal wall switch on. Not a full sit-up.
• Feel for the firm muscle edges either side of your fingers. Note two things: how many finger-widths fit between them, and how deep your fingers sink before you meet resistance.
• Repeat at the navel and about five centimetres below it. The gap is usually different at each level, and it is often widest at or just above the navel.

More than about two finger-widths — roughly two and a half centimetres — is the threshold most clinicians use to call it a diastasis. Write down what you find at all three points, with the date. Then leave it alone for eight to twelve weeks. Measuring weekly tells you nothing and makes you anxious.

What the test does not tell you

• Fingers are not a unit of measurement. Yours and your physiotherapist's differ. Palpation is a rough estimate; ultrasound is the accurate method, and you do not need it to make most training decisions.
• Width ignores depth and tension. A three-finger gap with a firm, springy floor under your fingertips behaves far better under load than a two-finger gap your hand sinks straight through.
• A gap is not a diagnosis of weakness. Plenty of women with a measurable separation lift heavy, run and have no symptoms at all.
• It says nothing about your pelvic floor, which manages the same pressure from below and is far more likely to be the source of symptoms that actually bother you.

Is this normal, and will it close on its own?

The linea alba — the connective tissue seam running down the midline of your abdomen — has to stretch to accommodate a baby. A Norwegian cohort study published in 2016, following 300 first-time mothers from pregnancy through the first year, found around 60% had a diastasis at six weeks postpartum and around a third still did at twelve months. So: very common early, and substantially improved by itself in most women over the first year.

NHS guidance on your post-pregnancy body says the separation usually narrows considerably by around eight weeks after birth, and advises contacting your GP if you still notice a gap after that point. That is a sensible trigger. It is not a deadline you have failed.

Here is the uncertainty, stated plainly: the evidence that any specific exercise protocol narrows the gap more than time does is weak, and the studies are mostly small. The evidence that progressive strength training improves abdominal function, trunk strength and how you feel is much better. Train for the second thing.

The number that matters is not how wide the gap is. It is how much tension you can create across it — and tension is trainable in a way that connective tissue width may not be.

Which exercises actually help?

Stage one: breathing and pressure, in the first weeks

• Exhale on effort. Breathe out as you lift, push or stand up. Holding your breath drives pressure down and forward into the weakest line in your abdomen.
• Pelvic floor contractions with a full release. The release matters as much as the squeeze. If you cannot feel the letting-go, that is worth telling a physiotherapist.
• Heel slides and dead bug variations, one limb at a time, watching your midline stay flat.
• Side-lying and all-fours work, which load the abdominal wall without the full weight of gravity on a stretched midline.

If you are in the first six weeks, this sits inside the wider picture covered in what happens after I give birth and when can I start exercising after giving birth.

Stage two: load, from clearance onwards

Once you have medical clearance — usually around six weeks, later after a caesarean — load is the treatment, not the risk. ACOG guidance on exercise after pregnancy supports a gradual return to activity, with around 150 minutes of moderate activity a week as the target once you are back to it.

• Loaded carries. A suitcase carry or farmer's walk is anti-rotation and anti-side-bend work that almost nobody domes during.
• Squats, hinges, presses and rows, two to three sessions a week, with the weight going up over weeks rather than the reps going up over minutes.
• Anti-extension work: Pallof press, plank progressions starting from a bench or wall before the floor.
• Direct abdominal work later, once you can hold a flat midline through the easier versions. Crunches are not forbidden forever — they are just a poor first choice.

More on how loading progresses in how soon can you lift after having a baby.

What to watch during every set

• A ridge or cone appearing down your midline — regress the exercise or reduce the load.
• A soft bulge pushing out instead of a flat, firm wall.
• Leaking urine, or a dragging heaviness in the vagina.
• Breath-holding you cannot avoid at that weight.

What should I avoid in the early weeks?

These are temporary, not permanent bans.

• Anything that produces visible doming you cannot control by breathing out.
• Full sit-ups, crunches and double-leg lowering in the first weeks.
• Front planks from the floor, until you can hold the incline version with a flat midline.
• Heavy lifting with a held breath.
• Treating an abdominal binder as treatment. Short-term comfort is fine; it does not rebuild anything.

When should I see a pelvic health physiotherapist?

Raise it at your six-week postnatal check — the NHS lists your recovery and any ongoing symptoms as things that check is for — and ask your obstetrician or GP for a referral to women's health physiotherapy if any of the following apply.

• A gap still clearly present after eight weeks, especially with back or pelvic pain.
• A midline you can push your fingers deep into with no resistance at all.
• Doming during ordinary tasks — sitting up in bed, picking up your baby.
• Any leaking of urine or stool, urgency, or heaviness in the vagina. These are pelvic floor symptoms and they are treatable; MedlinePlus lists them under pelvic floor disorders, not under things to tolerate.
• You are planning to return to running, jumping or heavy barbell work.

Stop and get help

See a doctor rather than a coach if you have:

• A firm, tender lump at or near your navel that does not flatten when you lie down — this can be a hernia and needs assessing.
• Sharp, localised midline pain rather than general soreness.
• Leaking urine or stool, or inability to control wind.
• A dragging or bulging sensation in the vagina.
• Fever, foul-smelling discharge, or bleeding that restarts heavily after it had settled.
• Back or pelvic pain that stops you doing everyday tasks.

This is general information, not medical advice for your situation. Your doctor, midwife or pelvic health physiotherapist is the person who can examine you.

Where to start

1. Do the finger-width test once. Write down three numbers — above, at and below the navel — plus how deep your fingers sink. Date it.
2. For the next two weeks, train the breath: exhale on every effort, and do pelvic floor contractions with a full release daily.
3. From clearance, start two full-body strength sessions a week and build the load slowly. Watch your midline, not the mirror.
4. Book a pelvic health physiotherapist if the gap is still obvious at eight weeks, if you dome during daily tasks, or if you have any leaking or heaviness.
5. Re-check the gap at eight to twelve weeks, not before.