It is really common for the two muscles that run down the middle of your stomach to separate during pregnancy. This is called diastasis rectus abdominus. It happens because your growing womb (uterus) pushes the muscles apart, making them longer and weaker.
Most of the time, these muscles knit back together by the time your baby is eight weeks old, as part of your clever body’s post-birth recovery. But sometimes they need some focused encouragement and care and you will be advised to do exercises to help stimulate your stomach muscles to strengthen and heal.
If you are working to resolve muscle separation, it is worth noting that electro-acupuncture can be a really useful way to promote healing and strengthen muscles alongside your usual exercise routine.
Electro-acupuncture is a gentle technique where two to four needles around the affected stomach muscles are stimulated with electricity. The electro-acupuncture device is the same as the one used for TENS, but instead of connecting to sticky pads it connects to acupuncture needles, and feels like a gentle, buzzy tap or a slight tingle.
In this recent study, the women were between 8 weeks to a year post-birth and were aged 20 to 45 years. All the women in the trial experienced an improvement in symptoms, but those who had Electro-Acupuncture PLUS Exercise did better; with less of a gap between their stomach muscles, stronger stomach muscles, better pelvic floor tone, less bladder weakness and less pelvic pain. And these were lasting benefits too, with improvements still evident 6 months after treatment.
It is also worth noting that even years after the birth of your baby, acupuncture can be a really effective treatment strategy. One of my patients was 6-years post birth when she came to see me with chronic back pain that was caused by diastasis rectus abdominus. She was surprised and delighted to feel her stomach muscles knitting back together, her core finally responding to strengthening exercises and her back pain resolving.
If you would like to understand more about treating diastasis rectus abdominus with electro-acupuncture, please do get in touch.