Your heaviest workout happens beside the cot
Five changes to how you pick up, carry and put down a baby, so the loads that fill your day stop working against your middle.
Quick answer
The single most useful change is to breathe out as you take the weight, rather than holding your breath and bracing. After that: get close to your baby before you lift, hinge at your hips and knees instead of rounding your back, keep your ribs stacked over your hips rather than leaning back, and swap the one-hip carry for something more central. None of this needs equipment. It matters because you lift a baby dozens of times a day and train your core for twenty minutes, so the lifting is where most of the load actually lives.
Why lifting matters more than your workout
A diastasis is not really about a gap. It is about how well the connective tissue down the middle of your abdomen handles the pressure your body generates. Every time you hold your breath and heave, pressure rises inside your abdomen and pushes outward against that tissue and down onto your pelvic floor. Do it once and nothing happens. Do it forty times a day for a year and it becomes the dominant input into your recovery.
That is genuinely good news, because it means you have far more opportunities to help yourself than a workout schedule ever offers. Our explainer on intra-abdominal pressure after birth covers the mechanism in more depth if you want the background first.
Of first-time mums had a diastasis at 6 weeks postpartum (Sperstad et al., 2016)
Still affected at 6 months postpartum in the same cohort
Still affected at 12 months, which is where good daily habits earn their keep
Step 1: Breathe out as you take the weight
Most of us instinctively hold our breath to lift something. That seals the abdomen and turns it into a pressurised container, which is efficient for a heavy deadlift and unhelpful for a recovering midline.
Instead, exhale gently as the weight comes onto you. Not a forceful blow, just a soft breath out that starts a moment before you lift and continues through the effort. If you can hum or say your baby's name while you pick them up, you are doing it right. Breathing in on the way down and out on the way up quickly becomes automatic.
If the connection between breath and deep core is new to you, deep core breathing is the foundation exercise worth learning first.
Step 2: Get close before you take the weight
Reaching over a cot rail or across a car seat puts the load a long way from your body, which multiplies the demand on your abdomen and lower back. Drop the cot side if it drops. Step into the car rather than leaning in from outside. Bring the pram closer instead of stretching.
The rule is simple: shorten the distance between your chest and the weight before you commit to the lift, not during it. This one habit takes the edge off dozens of lifts a day and is the reason many mums notice their lower back pain settle before anything else changes.
Step 3: Hinge and squat instead of rounding
Bending from the waist with straight legs rounds your spine and dumps the load into your midline. Bend your knees, push your hips back, and keep your chest facing forward as you go down. Coming up, drive through your feet.
Your knees may complain for the first week if you are not used to it. That usually passes as your legs adapt, and it is a much better place to feel effort than the middle of your belly. If squatting is genuinely uncomfortable, a half-kneel works well: one knee down beside the baby, gather them in, then stand up through the front leg.
Step 4: Stack your ribs over your hips when you carry
Once the baby is up, the temptation is to lean back and let them rest on your belly, or to shove one hip out and perch them on it. Both push your ribs out of line with your pelvis, and that is the position in which the midline is least able to do its job. The one-hip carry also loads one side repeatedly, which is where a lot of postpartum hip and back grumbles start.
Aim to keep your ribcage sitting over your pelvis, shoulders relaxed rather than pulled back, and the baby held centrally in front of you or in a carrier. Swap sides deliberately if you do use a hip. A supportive carrier is not cheating; it is the single easiest way to keep the load central during long stretches of the day.
Watch your belly while you carry. If you see a ridge or bulge appear down the middle, that is the same doming signal you would look for during exercise, and it means the current position is too much right now.
Step 5: Get up sideways, from bed and from the floor
Sitting straight up from lying down is a crunch, and it is the movement most likely to produce visible doming in the early months. It is also something you do every single night with a newborn.
Roll onto your side first, bring your knees up, then push yourself up with your arms while your legs swing down. Reverse it to lie back down. The same applies to getting off the floor after tummy time: roll to your side, come onto all fours, then step one foot up into a half-kneel and stand.
It feels slow and slightly ridiculous for about three days, and then it feels normal. This is also why crunches and sit-ups are a poor choice in early recovery, whether they happen in a workout or in your bedroom at 3am.
The short version
Exhale on effort, get close, hinge instead of rounding, carry centrally, and roll to your side to get up. Five habits, no equipment, and they apply to every lift in your day rather than the handful in a workout. Progress varies from mum to mum, and none of this replaces guidance from a women's health physiotherapist if you have pain, leaking or a bulge that is not settling.
What about heavier things than a baby?
Toddlers, car seats, prams and shopping all follow the same rules, and the exhale becomes more important as the weight goes up. If you are unsure whether you should be lifting something at all in the first weeks after birth, the NHS guidance on your body after the birth and ACOG's advice on exercise after pregnancy are sensible starting points, and after a caesarean your surgical team's advice takes priority over anything general.
Some mums also ask whether taping or a binder would protect them during all this lifting. We looked at that properly in the honest review of kinesiology tape for diastasis recti, and the short answer is that support garments can feel nice but do not replace changing how you move.
Pairing this with actual training
Good daily mechanics stop you working against yourself. Rebuilding strength is what moves you forward, and the two together are far more effective than either alone. If you are not sure what is appropriate for where you are, our guide to a postpartum core workout by month maps out what is usually safe from month one onward, and postpartum back and hip pain covers the aches that often travel with a weak midline.
Everything in one place, once
The Complete Postpartum Body Reset bundle brings Mumma Glow's guides together for $50 as a one-time purchase, covering deep core, pelvic floor, glutes and energy, with no subscription and nothing to cancel. It is the budget alternative to ongoing programmes for mums who would rather own the plan than rent it. Use code GLOW20 for 20% off.
Frequently asked questions
Can lifting my baby make diastasis recti worse?
Repeatedly lifting while holding your breath and rounding your back raises pressure against a midline that is still healing, and that pattern is unhelpful. Lifting itself is unavoidable and not the problem. Exhaling as you take the weight, staying close and hinging at the hips changes the load substantially.
How much weight can I safely lift with a diastasis?
There is no universal limit. A more useful test is what your body does under the load: if you can lift while breathing out, without bulging or doming down your midline, without leaking and without pain, the weight is manageable for you today. If any of those appear, reduce the load or get it assessed.
Is carrying my baby on my hip bad for me?
Not inherently, but doing it on the same side all day tips your ribs out of line with your pelvis and loads one side repeatedly. Swap sides deliberately, and use a carrier for longer stretches so the weight sits centrally.
How should I get out of bed after a C-section?
Roll onto your side with your knees bent, then push up with your arms as your legs swing down toward the floor. This avoids the sit-up motion that strains both the incision and the midline. Follow your surgical team's specific guidance on timing and restrictions.
How long until better lifting habits make a difference?
Many mums notice less back ache and less belly bulging within a couple of weeks, simply because the daily load has changed. Changes to the separation itself are slower and vary from mum to mum, which is why pairing better mechanics with progressive core work gives the best chance of lasting improvement.
Sources: Sperstad et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2016 (prevalence of diastasis recti in 300 first-time mothers); NHS, your body after the birth; ACOG, exercise after pregnancy; Cleveland Clinic, diastasis recti.
This article is general education, not medical advice. Results vary from mum to mum. Please see your GP, midwife or a women's health physiotherapist for guidance specific to you, and follow your surgical team's instructions if you have had a caesarean.