Postpartum Physical Activity among Multiparous Women with Diastasis Recti

Abstract

​Pregnancy is a natural physiological process, which is generally experienced by every normal woman throughout her life. Multiparity is more than one but less than five live births¹. It is always a big task for the physiotherapist to treat women during their pregnancy or postpartum period. Different structural and functional changes happen during pregnancy. In the third trimester, the individual muscle cell of the uterus grows to 10 times from the previous length when there was no pregnancy. In the third trimester, the abdominal muscles, especially both margins (right and left) of the rectus are extended to their elastic limit; this significantly lessens the​ ​ability of muscles to produce strong abdominal contractions¹. Diastasis recti abdominis (DRA) is characterized as a disability with partition from the middle of the two rectus abdominis muscles at the level of linea alba².