Do I really have to do something to recover my pre-baby belly? Can't I just rely on mother nature to fix it?!
Women of previous generations have accepted their post-pregnancy bodies and learned to live with them, adjusting their physical activities, their movements and even their lives to their new mother figures. Who can blame them? The health care system of most developed countries (I am guessing but I think I am right) has not payed the postpartum body much attention. The focus of the health care system has been the health of the newborn child, which is necessary and good but one thing shouldn't exclude the other.
To return to my initial question, do we really have to be proactive in this?
Well, the female body is designed to have babies. It is capable of so many wonderful things. Imagine creating a humane being inside of your belly! Wow, it's just breath taking. But we should also be aware of all the risks that come with being pregnant. Just because our modern health care system nowadays can save most women during pregnancy and child birth (again I am talking about the developed countries) doesn't mean that you should take a pregnancy lightly. It surely affects your whole body!
What needs to be fixed? Carrying a baby affects your stomach. Obviously. The inner abdominal,the transversus abdominis, is stretched out during pregnancy. As a result the muscles are lacking elasticity after the delivery. Also, the outer abdominals, the rectus abdominus, are moved sideways creating a space between the muscles in order to make room for the growing baby. When the split between the muscles remain after a pregnancy we call this diastasis recti (please note that many women have a slight separation without this being a problem). Some healing comes naturally during the first eight weeks after the childbirth. Muscles and tissue are healing and the woman is recovering core strength. However, there are factors that affect each woman's ability to recover. Nowadays, many of us have a passive life style, leading to us having weak, and often overweight, bodies to begin with. On top of that many of us give birth to big babies. These factors will indeed affect your body's ability to recover. On the other hand many of us are very physical, working out several times a week, practicing really challenging exercises. This may also affect your body's ability to recover. By starting exercise too soon, by exposing your postpartum body to heavy pressure when starting to lift heavy weights, by planking or working out by doing a lot of jumping around or by running for example. All of that can affect the natural healing in a bad way and can actually make the situation worse.
So the answer is that many women actually need to do something to reactivate and heal the abdominal muscles and tissue after being pregnant. They can not just rely on mother nature. So what can you do? You will help your post-pregnancy belly to heal and recover strength by doing rehabilitative exercises which targets this particular area. It's about learning how to activate your inner abdominals, using a technique where you pull your belly button towards your spine. By following the program in my Post-Pregnancy Belly Guide and completing rehabilitative phase of postpartum recovery, you can begin your journey towards that flat and strong belly.
Step 1: The first exercise in my program. You use a technique where you pull your belly button towards your spine in order to reactivate your inner abdominals and to heal your post-pregnancy stomach.
//Nicole Hellgren
