Part 1: What Is Diastasis Recti? A Pelvic Floor PT's At-Home Self-Check (Kirkland PT)
Part one of a three-part series on diastasis recti from a pelvic floor physical therapist.
If you've been poking at your belly button after having a baby, feeling a soft gap that wasn't there before, you're not imagining it. And you're not alone. That separation has a name, diastasis recti abdominis (DRA), and it's one of the most common (and most misunderstood) things I see in my practice.
So let's clear the fog. In this first post, I want to explain what diastasis recti actually is, why it happens, and how to check yourself at home.
So what is it, exactly?
Picture your "six-pack" muscles the rectus abdominis, and yes, you have them. They run vertically down the front of your belly in two columns, left and right. Down the middle, joining those two columns like the seam on the front of a button-up shirt, is a band of connective tissue called the linea alba.
During pregnancy, your growing uterus pushes outward and that seam stretches and thins to make room. The two muscle columns drift apart. That widening of the gap is diastasis recti, literally "separation of the recti."
Here's the part that surprises people: this is supposed to happen. Some degree of separation occurs in nearly every full-term pregnancy. Your body is doing exactly what it's designed to do, opening up to make room for your baby. The question is never really "did my muscles separate?" (they almost certainly did) but rather "have they come back together comfortably, and is my core working well now?"
How common is it, really?
Very. Research tracking women from late pregnancy through the first year shows that roughly 70% have diastasis recti in the late third trimester, about 60% at six weeks postpartum, and around 30% still have it at one year. So if you're sitting at six weeks postpartum noticing a gap, you are squarely in the majority, not the exception.
And it's worth saying clearly: this isn't only a pregnancy thing. Newborns can have it. Men can develop it from chronic straining or heavy lifting done with poor mechanics. But because pregnancy is by far the most common cause, that's where most of this series will focus.
What does it feel and look like?
The classic signs:
A bulge, ridge, or "pooch" down the center of your belly, often most visible when you sit up from lying down.
Doming or tenting, when you strain (like doing a crunch), the midline pushes up into a little tent or ridge instead of staying flat.
A feeling that your core is weak, disconnected, or unstable, like you can't quite "find" your abs.
Sometimes low back pain, pelvic pressure, or a sense that your posture has changed.
Notice that the size of the gap isn't the only thing that matters, and often isn't even the most important thing. I'll come back to this in Part 2, because the fitness-industry obsession with "closing the gap" misses the bigger point. What matters most is whether the connective tissue can generate tension and whether your deep core system works as a team again.
The at-home self-check
You can do a basic check yourself once you're past the early postpartum weeks. A quick note on timing: in the first six weeks, a lot of natural healing happens on its own, so checking too early tends to just create anxiety over something that's still resolving. Most providers suggest waiting until around four to six weeks postpartum (and until any C-section incision has fully healed) before assessing.
Here's the check:
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
Place two fingers horizontally just above your belly button, pressing gently into your midline.
Lift your head and shoulders slightly off the floor, think a small nod and a gentle curl, not a full crunch.
Feel for the edges of the muscle on either side of your fingers. Notice how many finger-widths of space there are, and just as importantly, how deep your fingers sink and whether the tissue springs back with any tension.
Repeat at your belly button and a few inches below it. The separation can differ at each spot.
A separation wider than about two finger-widths is generally considered diastasis recti. But here's the single most common mistake: lifting your head too high. Crunching all the way up draws the muscles together and hides the gap, giving you a falsely reassuring result. A small lift is all you need.
If you have extra postpartum skin or padding (which is completely normal), a self-check can be tricky to interpret. That's okay, it's exactly the kind of thing a pelvic floor physical therapist can assess precisely and without guesswork.
What I want you to take away from Part 1
Diastasis recti is normal, common, and not a sign that you did something wrong or that your body failed. It's a natural consequence of growing a human. The gap you're feeling is information, not a verdict.
In Part 2, I'll dig into the question everyone actually wants answered: Does it go away on its own and what does the evidence say actually works to recover? Spoiler: there's genuinely good news, and it doesn't involve hating your body or doing a thousand crunches.
This series is educational and isn't a substitute for an individual assessment. If you're noticing core weakness, a bulge, back pain, or pelvic symptoms, a pelvic floor physical therapist can evaluate you and build a plan that fits your body.