Every mother looks forward to the joy of motherhood that comes with giving birth. However, it’s not in every situation that a mother delivers a baby through the traditional vaginal birth. In cases where complications or risks are likely for the mother or the baby, C-Section is recommended by medical experts.
One common thing mothers want to get back after C-Section is their shape, banding body, and flat tummy.
While getting your flat belly is fine, doctors usually advise that those who just delivered through Cesarean –Section should allow their tummies to heal before rushing to flatten them. This medical advice is premised on avoiding complications from stressing an unhealed tummy.
The Waiting Time
It’s usually advised medically to wait for 6-8 weeks before engaging in activities or exercises geared towards flatting your tummy.
During these weeks, the incised parts of the body would have gradually healed, and that would maintain the stitches done after the C-Section.
Unsavory consequences of rushed exercises after C-Section are forced openings of surgical incisions, joint and muscle injuries, and heavy bleeding (postpartum).
Ways to Reduce Hanging Belly after Cesarean Section
Rather than force yourself to exercise after an incision delivery, it’s usually advised to consult your medical doctor for ways to heal your body and recover.
While the methods of healing and reducing hanging bellies are not exhaustive, you can adopt the listed practices below to shed a hanging belly after you’ve delivered.
Start a Gradual Body Movement
It’s expected that you don’t hastily decide to cover distances right after your C-Section. This is because C-Section involves incision of some stomach muscles, and that causes tummy pouch.
A tummy pouch stresses the pelvic floor and abdominal muscles, so walking fast or speedily exercising after C-Section may cause complications.
You may start from walking around the house to covering short distances; it helps burn calories. Strolling from the living room to the bedroom allows you to gradually recover your body and heal rather than rush to exercise.
Feed on Balanced Diets
For prenatal and postnatal stages, it’s essential to feed on balanced diets. Consuming the right proportion of food in equal nutrient value will not only nourish your body and strengthen the functionalities of your organs; it will also help the baby to be well-nourished.
Malnutrition may begin from the pregnancy stage if the mother feeds on unbalanced diets. Balanced diets aid the healing and recovery of the incised body parts.
It’s expected that mothers take low-fat foods and foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and carbohydrates. Keeping a tab on what you consume will help you regulate it. By this, you can watch your weight while also working towards a gradual recovery and shedding of a hanging belly.
You should know that feeding on junk and eating foods high in fats will only increase the tummy.
Practice High Fluid Intake
Drinking a regularized proportion of water after C-Section will aid a natural tummy shedding.
Drinking plenty of water will help maintain fluid in your body and relax the healing muscles. Dehydration will only cause dryness which may not aid a quick recovery.
Water, lemon water, and lemon juice mixed in warm water will burn calories in your body and also prevent weight gain.
It’s medically recommended to drink plenty of water or honey mixed lemon juice in the morning.
Get a Massage
The post-delivery stage requires that you relax as often as possible.
Getting a massage is a seamless way to relax and improve your health. Getting a massage will quicken the belly fat to disperse and reduce your waistline by letting the fluid come out of the nodes.
Your masseur or masseuse should avoid the abdominal areas during the recovery time and only massage the legs, hands, and your back. The reason is that your abdomen has undergone an operation and should be given time to heal.
After the 6-8 weeks of waiting and when healing has been affirmed, you can proceed to massage your abdomen. You can gently rub the belly to relax it daily.
Sleep Adequately
Another well-tested way to shedding belly fat is getting adequate sleep.
Adequate sleeping will make all muscles relax, and this will give your stomach muscle the needed relaxation to get you back in shape.
However, post-delivery mothers sometimes don’t focus on sleeping well which leads to insomnia. They focus more on exercising or using mixed drugs or substances to reduce their tummies. While the originality of most of these substances can’t be attested to, they’re mainly marketed as quick fat-tummy-shedding products.
Chemically prepared substances are not healthy for mothers who just delivered, and it’s more reliable to recover from the surgery than induce it naturally.
Dealing with the Shelf or Pooch after C-Section
A shelf or pooch is likely to appear on the incised tummy after the C-Section.
The appearance is more attached to dieting and self-care by mothers after the delivery. This is why mothers are expected to care for their bodies adequately.
That shelf or pooch on your tummy scar will be there or not, depending on how you care for your body. Let’s see how possible that is.
A shelf can be on the tummy when accumulated fats don’t spread to other body regions but the tummy. This can cause fats to be in steps and folds and form layers across the scar on your tummy.
Because the tummy can’t quickly recover to its normal stage after C-Section, pooches may form over it. Though the size and stubbornness of the pooch depend on the skin type and tone, excess fat on any skin type will likely require effective care to shed it.
In some cases, where the fat is stored in excess, doctors may advise the mother to undergo liposuction to remove the fat from the abdominal areas. However, this step requires consulting your doctor and should not be done in a self-medicated mode.
Exercises for Shedding Hanging Bellies
After waiting for 6-8 weeks with sufficient feeding on balanced diets, you may proceed with exercises to get rid of your hanging belly. Gynecologists recommend the following exercises in getting rid of hanging bellies
Planks
You can practice planks to help in weight loss. For at least 30 seconds, you can hold your body in a position showing push-up and then rest on your elbows, toes, and forearms.
Kegels
Kegels helps in tightening the pelvic floor muscles. You should hold your pelvic muscles together for at least five seconds and release them afterward.
Kegels can be done 3-4 times daily with breaks at intervals. It’s essential to release your breath while doing Kegels constantly.
The exercise is to strengthen your pelvic muscles, and holding your breath may not in any way add to achieving that.
Bridges
Bridges is another medically recommended exercise that can help you strengthen your muscles after C-Section.
To practice bridges, you should lie on the floor with your feet flat on the floor and your knees bent. Then, you should spread your palms facing downwards and your hands on the floor. Then, get your stomach up and down while also moving your buttocks.
This should be done for 10 seconds and 3-4 times daily.
Slides
Slides for lower abdominal muscles are essential exercises to relax your muscles.
Slides are done by lying down feet flat and bending your knees and arms by the sides. Then, you can tuck in your stomach to let the abdominal muscles contract.
This should be done slowly between 3-4 times daily with breaks at intervals.
Forward Bending
Forward bending is targeted at burning calories.
To practice forward bending, you should be in a standing position, then raise your arms and bring your head to the level of your knees. This exercise will make you sweat, but it helps strengthen your knees and arms muscles while burning calories.
Pelvic Tilting
Another exercise effective for stomach muscles contraction is pelvic tilting.
Tilting your hip forward can help in achieving well-contracted stomach muscles.
This exercise can be properly done while standing, but it can also be done in a lying-down position.
C-Section is done when the traditional vaginal delivery is likely to result in complications. Because Cesarean Section involves incising the stomach, stomach muscles usually take some time to heal.
During the 6-8 weeks of healing, post-delivery mothers shouldn’t get involved in exercises or strenuous activities to avoid postpartum bleeding, a forceful opening of surgical incisions, and muscles injuries.
Mothers should start by gradually moving around the house to take a walk. Medically recommended exercises can then be done after the 6-8 weeks of body recovery.
1.Feasibility of abdominoplasty with Cesarean section
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3325006/
2.Increased weight gain by C-section: Functional significance of the primordial microbiome
