And I can tell you it works, because it has worked for me!
During the stressful 3rd trimester of my 3rd pregnancy, the abdominal muscles above my belly button “popped,” making a strange flat spot on my otherwise nice and round pregnant belly.
After the pregnancy, many assured me my belly would never look the same again.
Cue my fourth pregnancy, and sure enough, when my belly grew to a certain size, the same spot in my belly “popped.”
My midwife measured with her fingers and agreed it was diastasis recti. Dun dun dun!
She suggested a belly band and coached me on ways to move that wouldn’t make it worse. (Such as carrying my toddler up and down the spiral staircase).
When it comes to the web’s advice for healing this postpartum, it’s supposed to take a lot of work and abdominal exercises to resolve this situation and bring the muscles back together.
If you are anything like me, and you have this condition, you probably also don’t want to be locked into some crazy complicated workout routine.
Sure, if it’s fun and easy, but as a postpartum mama with now 4 children running about, I like my self care to be fun since it’s usually pretty brief.
As I was thinking about what I was going to do, I remembered vaguely something I had read from Dr. Jack Kruse (this was part of what inspired me to do the research I did to create the newborn jaundice mini-course):
Without sunlight, not enough dopamine is present in smooth muscle in the uterus. This is why so many get diastasis recti of their belly when pregnant. Mom's with this were sunlight deficient before pregnancy. The proof is also found in the little yellow babies who need to be put under blue light in the hospital to clear their blood of bilirubin to protect the unmyelinated brain from the early breakdown of RBC's that make the bilirubin levels rise. This is evidence of a circadian mismatch in mom that shows up in the baby. This means Mom was likely blue light toxic. The environment of the mother/dad and baby were created by choices born of the environment parent allowed without knowing how light destroyed these cycles in cells in the blood and circulatory system.
At my final 6 week visit with my midwife, I asked her to check my diastasis recti.
It had closed to a nearly negligible gap—she could hardly even fit one finger between the muscles where they had been separated.
Amazing! she said. Especially for a 4th time mom.
Another big sunlight and circadian rhythm win!
Keep reading for just a few more tips, and also, the chance to share your own sunlight wins with the community.
Sunlight baby steps! Start with early morning light. Get outside, then eat breakfast, then go back outside. Mind your time under direct overhead sunlight—yes it’s important, but you can overdo it especially with babies and kids and the ways their skin is different (search the publication for my solar callus for baby post). Use outdoor time as an opportunity to practice earthing (bonus points for being in a natural body of water, which increases conductivity and electron transfer—or, just run the hose and make a little mud to step in). Eat seafood often, and other healthy fats and proteins so you have all the precursors you need for hormone production. Spend time outside in the long rays of evening, too. Practice good sleep hygiene with plenty of darkness. If you live somewhere where the sun isn’t setting for very long at night, plan to take an afternoon nap with your littles. Your morning-self will thank you for yesterday’s nap when those early dawn rays start streaming in.
Have you had any surprising sunlight wins? We’d love to hear about them!
It makes Perfect sense IN my soma that the Sun would BE so BEneficial and medicINal for overAll postpartum healINg. Thank you for sharINg your experience and thIS INformation!
I developed a hernia after my 3rd, who was born after a few years of living at a northern latitude with limited sun exposure. I’m still working to heal it. Definitely will work on more belly sun exposure! I did quite a bit in my last trimester and then haven’t gotten as much as baby can’t handle as much direct sun as I feel I can. She’s getting more used to the sun though and I think we can step it up a bit!
Yay! Yes, it feels so get to get out. For wintertime, being in Nature is still helpful (bundle up!) and practicing light amounts of cold therapy (even just cold water on your body in the shower) and getting tyrosine (higher in animal proteins) and gut health and probiotics also help with the dopamine connection. So even with the season change coming up you can keep up your healing :)
Wow! This makes SO MUCH SENSE. With my first pregnancy, I was living a very different lifestyle. Working all day under fluorescent lighting, no idea about circadian rhythm/health. I got a horrible diastasis recti with him… even though we live a very different lifestyle now, my DR has not healed. And like the commenter above, I have 2/3 winter babies and our 4th will be a late fall baby.
It’s more difficult in winter, but warmth and fire are your allies in Winter, plus reducing your exposure to artificial white light at the wrong times of day. This reminds me to finish writing a winter postpartum post to complement the summer one in the archive—thank you! And best wishes for your upcoming birth.
I had all 3 of my babies in the "dead of winter". It's very very cold out currently. ( -30°c)
We go outdoors as much as we can, but sometimes only parts of the face can touch air.
Our warmer weather to reveal more skin happens end of May/June. Still cooler, but warming up. And lasts until September (mid to late September if it's an exceptionally warm year)
Hi Fiona! Thank you for your question and I apologize for having missed it. Nature has everything you need for winter, too—it involves making up for lost infrared light and reducing your exposure to artificial light that is blue-enriched so you don’t get so much cortisol (excess cortisol can damage collagen). Traditionally, this would have been some sort of sauna or natural hot springs and wood fired heat. I am lucky to still have a home with a wood stove so I can expose my belly to firelight in the winter and it feels soooo good!
It makes Perfect sense IN my soma that the Sun would BE so BEneficial and medicINal for overAll postpartum healINg. Thank you for sharINg your experience and thIS INformation!
I developed a hernia after my 3rd, who was born after a few years of living at a northern latitude with limited sun exposure. I’m still working to heal it. Definitely will work on more belly sun exposure! I did quite a bit in my last trimester and then haven’t gotten as much as baby can’t handle as much direct sun as I feel I can. She’s getting more used to the sun though and I think we can step it up a bit!
Yay! Yes, it feels so get to get out. For wintertime, being in Nature is still helpful (bundle up!) and practicing light amounts of cold therapy (even just cold water on your body in the shower) and getting tyrosine (higher in animal proteins) and gut health and probiotics also help with the dopamine connection. So even with the season change coming up you can keep up your healing :)
Wow! This makes SO MUCH SENSE. With my first pregnancy, I was living a very different lifestyle. Working all day under fluorescent lighting, no idea about circadian rhythm/health. I got a horrible diastasis recti with him… even though we live a very different lifestyle now, my DR has not healed. And like the commenter above, I have 2/3 winter babies and our 4th will be a late fall baby.
It’s more difficult in winter, but warmth and fire are your allies in Winter, plus reducing your exposure to artificial white light at the wrong times of day. This reminds me to finish writing a winter postpartum post to complement the summer one in the archive—thank you! And best wishes for your upcoming birth.
Thank you ❤️
What do you suggest for northern mothers?
I had all 3 of my babies in the "dead of winter". It's very very cold out currently. ( -30°c)
We go outdoors as much as we can, but sometimes only parts of the face can touch air.
Our warmer weather to reveal more skin happens end of May/June. Still cooler, but warming up. And lasts until September (mid to late September if it's an exceptionally warm year)
Hi Fiona! Thank you for your question and I apologize for having missed it. Nature has everything you need for winter, too—it involves making up for lost infrared light and reducing your exposure to artificial light that is blue-enriched so you don’t get so much cortisol (excess cortisol can damage collagen). Traditionally, this would have been some sort of sauna or natural hot springs and wood fired heat. I am lucky to still have a home with a wood stove so I can expose my belly to firelight in the winter and it feels soooo good!