Diastasis recti above the navel

A bulge that appears when sitting up, coughing, or lifting may fit this pattern, but a clinician or physiotherapist should examine a focal, painful, or persistent lump to distinguish muscle separation from a hernia.

The rectus abdominis muscles run vertically on either side of a central band called the linea alba. Pregnancy and other sustained increases in abdominal pressure can widen and thin this band. Separation may extend above and below the navel, yet one area can look or feel more prominent.

The width of a gap is only one part of assessment. The tissue's tension, whether the abdomen domes during movement, breathing and pressure control, pain, and the effect on daily function all help guide rehabilitation. Diastasis itself is not a hole in the abdominal wall, whereas a hernia involves tissue pushing through a defect.

Begin with comfortable breathing and controlled abdominal engagement during everyday tasks. Exhale during effort, avoid holding your breath, and reduce or modify movements that repeatedly cause pronounced doming, pain, or a feeling of poor control. Roll onto your side before rising from bed and keep loads close to your body while lifting.

A pelvic-health or musculoskeletal physiotherapist can check the whole abdominal wall and create a progressive programme for trunk strength, posture, lifting, and return to exercise. Rehabilitation should build capacity rather than depend on avoiding all abdominal exercise. Support garments may improve comfort for some people but do not replace strength and movement training.

Arrange a clinical assessment if the bulge is focal, tender, increasing, difficult to distinguish from a hernia, or associated with continuing back or abdominal pain. Also seek help when weakness limits lifting, exercise, bowel movements, or care of your baby despite gradual rehabilitation.

Get urgent medical care for sudden severe pain, vomiting, abdominal swelling, inability to pass stool or gas, or a firm painful bulge that does not settle. Those features are not explained by simple muscle separation and may indicate a trapped hernia or another abdominal problem.

Ask whether the finding is diastasis, a hernia, or both; how tissue tension and movement control look; and which activities are appropriate now. Discuss a physiotherapy referral, how to progress resistance safely, what change would warrant imaging, and whether persistent pain suggests another cause.