First, the bit the forums skip
The gap is normal
Everyone (men AND women) has a line of connective tissue running down the middle of their abdomen, the linea alba. In pregnancy it stretches to make room for a baby. That is not damage. It's design to accommodate your growing baby.
Because it stretched, it stays stretched for a while after birth, sometimes for months, sometimes in some measure for good. This is common, ordinary and not a defect to be ashamed of. Your middle did an enormous job. It doesn't owe anybody a specific number of fingers.
Measurements
What the finger test can't tell you
The internet loves a measurement. Lie down, fingers in, count the gap, panic accordingly.
But a gap measurement on its own says surprisingly little. What matters more is how the whole system works. Can you manage pressure when you breathe, lift and laugh? Does the middle of you tense and hold when you ask it to? The things actually worth attention are the symptoms: heaviness, doming down the midline, leaking, a back that files complaints it never used to. Symptoms beat centimetres, every time.
Fair play
What movement sessions can genuinely do
A lot, honestly. What thoughtful functional movement trains is the pressure management system around the gap: breathing that manages pressure instead of shoving it at the midline, deep core muscles that switch on at the right moment, and strength built up gradually so your body trusts itself again.
In practice that looks like carrying the car seat without bracing for impact. Getting up off the floor with ease. Picking up the toddler without paying for it afterwards. In a 1:1 I can watch how you breathe and move under load, and adjust in real time, which is what makes this work precise rather than generic.
Honest limits
What it can't do
No exercise welds connective tissue back together on demand. Nobody can promise you a closed gap, and anyone selling "healed in six weeks" is selling certainty they don't have.
Some distance can remain and still be completely normal. Plenty of strong, comfortable, leak-free middles have a measurable gap. The goal was never a number. The goal is a middle that works: strength you can feel, pressure you can manage, a torso that supports lifting, carrying, laughing and sneezing without negotiation.
Your team first
Where your medical team fits
A proper assessment belongs to a women's health physio or your GP, and it comes first. Especially if anything is painful, doming or feels "heavy down there". Your medical team leads on your health. I encourage all clients to put me in touch with their practitioners - it only makes sense that you have an open channel of communication between people working on supporting you.
Starting
How we'd start
The way I work is that everyone starts with an intro package of three sessions. The first one is assessment and teaching, not a workout. We look at how you breathe under load, how your ribs and pelvis are getting on with each other, and what your days actually ask of you. Then we build gradually, at your pace.
And the logistics stay kind. I come to you, so there's no crèche puzzle, no racing a feed, no dragging a newborn across Hackney in the rain. The baby can nap in the next room. You just need to be home.
Questions
Two honest questions
Can Pilates fix diastasis recti?
Fix is a big word, and the honest answer is more interesting. Biomechanical coaching and Pilates movements rebuild how your middle manages something called Intra Abdominal Pressure (IAP), which is what most symptoms respond to. The gap itself may narrow or may not. Both are normal, and neither decides whether your middle works.
How do I know if I have it?
You may have been told by a midwife, when having a women's health MOT post labour or by your GP. If you have any concern, I assess every postnatal woman that I start with.
When you're ready
If the 3am searches have convinced you that your middle is broken, it almost certainly isn't. It's a middle that did a big job and could use good teaching while it rebuilds. The postnatal page explains how we'd work together.