Association of Diastasis Recti with Lumbopelvic Pain in Postpartum; A Cross-sectional Study

Background: Diastasis recti abdominis is an impairment that is characterized by the separation of the rectus abdominis muscles along the linea alba. There is an increased distance between the two recti muscles which is termed “inter-recti distance”, that might exist congenitally, but usually develops during pregnancy and in the initial postpartum period. Objective: To determine the association between diastasis rectus abdominis and lumbopelvic pain in postpartum females. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the data was collected from various public and private hospitals in Lahore, Pakistan in six-month duration. Convenient sampling was used to include 97 postpartum females aged between 25 and 35 years. Those postpartum females were excluded who had any history of auto-immune disease, cerebral disease or any spinal issue. After getting their consent, the postpartum females were asked about their age and mode of delivery and they filled self-structured assessment questionnaire The body mass index of patients was calculated and Pearson’s correlation was applied to find out the association between lumbopelvic pain and diastasis recti abdominis. Results: The occurrence of diastasis recti abdominis was 81(83.5%) out of 97 postpartum females and their inter-rectus distance was greater than 16mm at 2cm below the umbilicus. A significant association was found between lumbopelvic pain and diastasis recti abdominis in postpartum females (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study concluded that diastasis recti abdominis is significantly associated with lumbopelvic pain in postpartum females. Out of 97 postpartum females who were included in this study 81 were reported to have diastasis recti abdominis and out of these 81 postpartum females 47 were reported to have lumbopelvic pain in their postpartum period.