The photos don't tell you much. Two stomachs side by side, one soft and one tighter, and no way to know whether the second one can hold a sneeze, pick up a toddler, or stay flat when she sits up out of bed.
Here is what a real before and after looks like from the inside, because that's what decides whether the work is done.
What "before" usually is
Diastasis recti is a widening of the line down the middle of your abdomen, the linea alba, where the two halves of the six-pack muscle meet. Pregnancy stretches it. Nearly everyone has some separation at the end of a term pregnancy. It isn't a tear and it isn't a hernia.
Here's how to check it, and how we check it in clinic. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat. Put two fingers just above your belly button, pointing toward your feet. Lift your head and shoulders a little, like the very start of a sit-up, and press down gently. Feel for the two muscle edges on either side of your fingers. Count how many fingers fit between them. Then do the same a hand's width above the navel and a hand's width below.
Now the part most people skip. With your head still lifted, notice how far your fingers sink. Does the tissue under them feel like a trampoline, or like a hole? That's the piece that matters.
A typical "before" at six weeks: three fingers at the navel, two above, two below, and your fingers drop in to the second knuckle before they meet anything. When you sit straight up, a ridge rises along the midline. That ridge is called doming. It's the gap letting pressure through.
If what rises is a lump that stays when you lie back down, hurts, or sits off to one side, that isn't doming and it needs a provider's eyes. Same for soaking a pad an hour, a fever, chest or calf pain, or any thought of hurting yourself or your baby: call your provider or 911.
What "after" actually looks like
Not zero fingers. Plenty of people never get back to zero and it doesn't matter.
What we're looking for at the end:
- Two fingers or fewer at the navel, and about the same above and below.
- Firm tension under your fingers when you lift your head. The tissue pushes back.
- No doming when you sit up, lift the car seat, or cough.
- No leaking, no heaviness in the pelvis, no pulling pain at the midline.
Width goes down last. Tension comes back first. If you only count fingers you'll think nothing is happening for weeks when it is.
The order it usually goes in:
Weeks zero to about six. Your job is breathing, not exercise. Lie or sit with one hand on your lower ribs and one on your lower belly. Inhale and let both hands rise. Exhale slowly through pursed lips and feel the lower belly draw in on its own, then add a little more, as if you're zipping tight jeans from the pubic bone up. Five breaths, several times a day. Roll onto your side to get out of bed, every time, and push up with your arms. Don't sit straight up out of bed for a good while.
Get clearance from your OB-GYN or midwife before adding anything beyond walking and breathing, usually at the six-week visit, later after a cesarean.
Weeks six to about twelve. Now you add load, on your back and on all fours. Heel slides, bent-knee drops, bridges, bird dog with the knee staying down at first. Every rep starts with the exhale and the draw-in. If you see a dome, that rep is too hard: make it smaller, go slower, or put a hand across the midline and press in while you do it. Eight to ten reps, two sets, most days. Walk more. Protein at every meal and water all day, because connective tissue doesn't rebuild on toast. If you're nursing, don't restrict calories. Our full progression, with the modifications written out, is here: diastasis recti exercises.
Weeks twelve to about twenty-four. Standing work: carrying, split stance, side planks from the knees, dead bugs, then the first real planks from the knees for a few seconds at a time. This is where "after" starts to look like something. The gap you measure on the floor may still read two fingers, but the doming is gone and your low back stops aching from holding the baby.
From there through the first year. Whatever the tissue is going to do on its own, it has mostly done by now. Width plateaus. This is when a stubborn gap or a soft one is worth a professional opinion rather than more of the same.
No crunches or sit-ups through all of this. No all-day waist trainers; a soft binder for comfort in the first couple of weeks is fine, but it isn't treatment.
How to track your own before and after
Measure once every two weeks, same position, same time of day, before you've eaten much. Write down fingers at three spots and one word for tension: soft, some, firm. Note whether you domed sitting up. That's it. More often than that and you'll chase noise; bloat alone moves the number.
Take a photo if you want, side view and front, same spot in the house, same light, no sucking in. But read it with the finger test next to it. A photo will show you a soft belly for months after the gap is doing fine, and it'll flatter a gap that still opens under load. Our free core tracker holds the measurements and dates so you can see the line move.
Things that mean you should stop guessing and book a pelvic floor physical therapist: leaking with a cough or a jump, heaviness or a dragging feeling in your pelvis, pain with sex, or a gap that hasn't narrowed at all by twelve weeks of consistent work. A PT checks your gap under load, checks your pelvic floor along with it, and watches how you breathe while you lift something, which tells her more than any photo. We go through what that visit looks like here: diastasis recti physical therapy.
Surgery exists, and for a wide, deep gap that hasn't responded after a year of real work, it's a reasonable conversation to have with your provider. It's the end of the list, not the start.
If you want the first six weeks laid out so you don't have to think about it, our guide The 10-Minute Mom Pooch Reset is the breathing and early core work in one short daily routine.
The 10-Minute Mom Pooch Reset
The 12-week, 10-minute-a-day core and belly plan for exhausted moms: the gap check, breath-to-core, three phases, kitchen-counter and naptime routines, food that helps, and 6 printable trackers.
See the plan →Not sure yet? Take the free 2-minute quiz
Educational content from the Mom Pooch Reset team. Not medical advice for your specific situation. Get clearance from your OB-GYN or midwife before exercising after birth, and see a pelvic floor physical therapist for leaking, pain or a bulge.
