At 8 days postpartum, I want to be a little more practive about initiating some core rehab exercise. I hope you can and will join me in this! But before we progress we want to assess risk for injury. So we are going to test for diastasis recti, and I want you to carefully assess your pain levels, bleeding, and any leakage of urine or other symptoms.  Keep on eye on these as we progress our exercise over the coming weeks.

If you perform the self test in the video and find you have a DRA, don’t fret! Most women do at this early stage. I just want you to be very aware of its presence, how big it is, and whether your exercises and daily activities are aggravating it. Aggravation may present as “tenting” or bulging during effort (especially sitting up out of bed), as low back or pelvic pain, as shortness of breath, or as a feeling of instability. I also want you to be aware of other signs of pelvic dysfunction like urine leakage and increasing feelings of heaviness in the vagina, which is a sign of prolapse. These should be avoided so if you experience them during your chores or exercises, stop what you are doing.

Enjoy the video and do not hesitate to contact me with any questions!

Sheri DeSchaaf, DPT