There are more than three million cases of diastasis recti in the United States each year. The condition, in which the large abdominal muscles separate, has become more common, and can last as little as a few years or as long as a woman’s entire lifetime. Even famous women are talking about the ways in which their core has been affected after giving birth. That includes singer Ciara, who revealed the condition got worse after each of her two pregnancies, and her BFF Kelly Rowland. The former Destiny’s Child star has been working against her own case of diastasis recti since having son Titan in 2014.
“The inside of my body changed and it was a moment when my core became extremely weak, which gave me back problems—Diastasis recti,” she said. “It affected my abs, which affected my back. I don’t care about being skinny more than I care about being healthy.”
This isn’t the first time the 37-year-old has opened up about her condition. She told us in an exclusive interview earlier this month that when it comes to her abs post-diastasis recti, “I can feel the difference, and that’s why I have to do the work,” she said. “It’s not about size. I want to be strong.”
She initially revealed that she had the condition while promoting her parenting book, Whoa, Baby!, in 2017, when her son was then two years old.
“I wanted to tell women about my challenge with diastasis recti and the fact that I still have it,” she said. “Every day I work hard to try to pull my abs together, and I actually have some back problems now because I didn’t know my core wasn’t as tight as it was before I had the baby.”
At that time, she shared that she was trying a variety of training methods to build back up the strength in her core. That included waist training per the recommendation of her other celeb BFF, La La.