Miss Dong gave birth to a second child two years ago, children, the whole family is full of joy. But after the birth of Miss Dong has been worried about their belly. When giving birth to a daughter, the belly recovered quite well, in the eight or nine months after the birth to recover, basically close to the prenatal. But after the birth of the second baby belly is always loose, how can not be collected back, and the performance of the forward protrusion. Although they began to do sit-ups and other fitness exercises from six months after childbirth, but to no avail, the central position of the belly protrudes, especially the belly button protrudes even more. Miss Dong saw a general surgeon at a hospital, the physician felt that the umbilical hernia, can be observed or surgery. Miss Dong came to the hernia and abdominal wall specialist at Eastern Hospital with doubts, and after examination, the physician told her that her case was not primarily an umbilical hernia, but postpartum diastasis recti abdominis. Miss Dong had never heard of this disease, and the physician explained to her patiently. It turns out that the central region of our abdominal wall is the longitudinal rectus abdominis muscle, which is the eight muscles we see in bodybuilders. Between the left and right rectus abdominis is the midline of the front abdominal wall, medically known as the “white line of the abdomen”. The width of the abdominal white line in a normal person is usually no more than 1.5 cm, with a slight widening at the umbilicus. When a woman is pregnant, her abdomen bulges and the abdominal white line widens accordingly, with the rectus abdominis muscle deviating slightly to the outside. But after delivery, it will be like a spring that returns to normal after removing the external force. Usually six months to a year after childbirth the width of the white line of the abdomen will return to the prenatal level, the rectus abdominis also back to the original position. However, if the spring is overstretched and does not recover because the child is too big, there is too much amniotic fluid, or after multiple pregnancies, and the strength of the abdominal white line is not enough, the abdominal white line will relax and widen to more than 3-4 cm, and accordingly the rectus abdominis will separate to both sides. As the strength of the central region of the abdomen is no longer enough to withstand the pressure in the abdominal cavity, there will be similar to the performance of a hernia, standing and force when the intestinal tube in the stomach protrudes outward resulting in a local bulge. Just like Miss Dong, the belly is too big to be retracted. If it is found early in the postpartum period of about six months, while the degree of separation is not large, through some special exercise methods, some patients may still recover. However, very few women who are truly aware of the cause of their illness often use incorrect exercise methods such as sit-ups on their own. Although the sit-ups can exercise the rectus abdominis muscle, but does not make the rectus abdominis muscle close together, exercise when the increased abdominal pressure will even make the white line more weak, which is the reason why Miss Dong exercise is ineffective. If by one year after delivery, at the latest two years, through the correct exercise, the separated rectus abdominis muscle still can not come together, then the next only through surgery to solve the problem. Some people are afraid of surgery, think it is not just a bigger belly, look ugly, it does not matter if you do not do surgery. In fact, this view is wrong, this is because the human body is full of various balances, our abdomen and back strength is a balance. Once the white line of the abdomen becomes wider and the rectus abdominis muscle separates, the strength of the abdominal wall will weaken and the back strength becomes relatively stronger, which will pull the weakness of the abdomen further to the sides, so that the rectus abdominis muscle separates further and the abdominal defect will become bigger and bigger. Since most of the mothers are young and middle-aged, the development of the disease is mostly slow in the early stage, but with the growth of age, to a certain stage this change will suddenly accelerate, causing difficulties in treatment, so if by two years after childbirth still can not recover or recommended early surgical treatment. The main goal of surgery is to narrow the white line of the abdomen and bring the separated rectus abdominis muscles together, thus restoring the normal structure and function of the abdominal wall. The traditional surgery is to make a midline longitudinal incision, which is long and traumatic. Now with the minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, we can complete the surgery through three small holes in the lateral abdominal wall with little trauma and quick postoperative recovery. Ms. Dong successfully completed the minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery and her belly, which could not be retracted after giving birth, finally shrank back. Therefore, if you have a postpartum tummy that does not shrink back, as shown in the picture below, when the central groove of the abdomen appears when sitting up, you must be alert to “postpartum diastasis recti abdominis”!