The internal organs in your abdomen are covered by two large, abdominal muscle sheets (known as the 'Recti muscles'). These muscles cover your entire belly and run vertically from your rib cage, down to your pubic bone. Your abdominal muscles meet in a line, down the middle of your abdomen, above and below the belly button (or navel).
Towards the end of the pregnancy, it is normal for these two abdominal muscles to separate, allowing your belly to accommodate your growing baby. Most women are unaware of this separation happening, although some will feel discomfort in the last weeks of the pregnancy (usually as a stretching or 'splitting' sensation), which generally eases within a few days.
If you have had a Caesarean birth, the surgeon would have needed to pull these abdominal muscles to each side, in order to access your uterus and deliver the baby, accentuating any abdominal muscle separation. If your baby was born premature, you may not experience any abdominal muscle separation.
Image 12-11 shows both normal and separated abdominal muscles.
You can usually detect the degree of your abdominal muscle separation by lying on your back, with your knees bent, and lifting your head slightly up and forward (like a small 'sit-up' exercise). This tenses the abdominal muscles, and emphasises the soft and spongy space between them (usually about 1 to 5 centimetres in width, in a vertical line above and below the belly button). Your caregiver may ask you to do this to check your abdominal separation soon after the birth, and/or at your routine medical check, about 6 to 8 weeks after the birth.
If you want to quickly check your own abdominal separation, you can: