Baby belly vs flat belly

Submitted by louiseds on May 20, 2011 - 1:34am
Body: 

Hi All

I had a lightbulb moment yesterday, while driving.

Why do we have more of a belly after having a baby?

With our female shape, the pronounced lumbar curve, with the lower lumbar vertebrae coming off the sacrum horizontal, why do young women who have never been pregnant have a flat belly?

They cannot both be right, can they?

Yes, they can!

There is a thing called the linea alba, a big strong strap of ligament that runs down the midline from bottom of sternum to pubic symphysis. I wouldn't mind betting that it always remains stretched slightly after a pregnancy, both lengthwise and sideways, which means that a woman who has had a full pregnancy will always be able to stick her belly out further than her virgin daughter.

If this is right, why doesn't the linea alba grow big enough in the first place so it doesn't have to stretch during pregnancy?

I believe the reason is that the tight linea alba stabilises the abdominal muscles while the little girl 'breathes' her uterus and her bladder into her lower abdomen as she grows up into a woman. If her linea alba was not tight her abdomen would simply expand forwards and to the sides with every breath, and never force change in the shape of her spine, and the tilt of her pelvis, pinning her uterus and bladder forwards with the top of her sacrum.

The flat belly is therefore a developmental phenomenon in the female human, prior to the first pregnancy, and not a normal characteristic of the mature female. The developing female needs the flat belly to direct some of the physical changes of puberty. After that it disappears.

Christine, what are your comments on this?

louiseds

May 20, 2011 - 5:21am

The second lightbulb just went on, while I was driving home after a late dash to the shops for some veg.

The transverse Abdominus muscle is a tube of muscle that starts at the edges of the linea alba and reaches all the way around both sides of the torso and joins onto the five lumbar vertebrae (the ones without ribs attached to them). Once it gets down as far as the crest of the pelvis it joins the crest. At the front corner of the crest it ceases being joined onto the crest, and is instead joined at the sides to the inguinal ligaments, two strong bow-stringlike ligaments joined at the top corner of the crest, and at the bottom to the pubic symphysis. There is not a lot of transverse abdominal muscle tissue below the corner of the crest. It becomes just a narrow sliver on the edge of the linea alba, a triangular sheet of almost unstretchable ligament.

So there is a long thin hole from the front corner of the crest to the pubic symphysis (like the space between the bow and its taut string), through which pass muscles, nerves, lymph vessels and connective tissue, on their way from the front of the thigh to the inside of the pelvis. These holes are where inguinal hernias happen. This hole is the only part of the lower abdominal wall with any 'give'. We cannot use our transverse abdominus muscles to suck our TA in, because the TA doesn't go down that far.

This bottom part of the linea alba is designed to be a sling on the front of the pelvis (not unlike a baby sling, or triangular shade sail - that fundamentally stable shape again!!!), not a solid sheet like a trampoline mat, which is attached to solid points on all sides.

It only hangs from the top and iliac crests, with a single narrow attachment at the bottom centre to the pubic symphysis (front join of the pelvic bones).

It is this bottom section of the linea alba that the uterus and bladder rest against at the front. It is designed to be not allowed to be sucked in.

Yes, we can suck in our lower abdominal muscles. We do this by contracting our internal and external oblique muscles at the same time and contracting our rectus abdominus muscles (which run vertically from bottom of ribcage to pubic symphysis, but the sling remains the same size.

This manoeuvre will automatically tilt the pelvis backwards and straighten the lumbar curve because it pulls the illiac crests towards the ribcage and straightens the lumbar spine.

If a heavy load is lifted with this contraction of the abdominal volume, the only things that can happen are that the diaphragm will be pushed up, (which is why we stop ourselves breathing out when lifting a really heavy load) or the valve at the top of the stomach will open and gastric reflux results, or the abdominal contents will squish out through the elongated holes between the pelvis bones and the inguinal ligament. This is an inguinal hernia.

If female, this will push the bladder and uterus backwards and possibly down the plughole!!!. You can prevent this last action by ensuring that your lumbar curve is maintained when bracing the abdominal muscles and respiratory diaphragm for lifting. You get a nice big, fat, sausage-shaped abdominal cavity surrounding the spine, with a backwards bend at the start of the pelvic cavity at the bottom. This backwards bend ensures that intraabdominal pressure coming down from the upper abdomen, bounces off the triangular sling and hits the front wall of the vagina (not the top of the vagina!), and jams the vagina shut!

This is the right angle at the top of the vagina that Christine is always writing about. It is *the cleverest* mechanism for ensuring that what is in does not get out. The principle is repeated at the bottom of the rectum, the front of the prolapsed bladder, the gastro-oesophageal opening at the top of the stomach, the pyloric sphincter at the top of the large intestine (at the bottom of the stomach), and perhaps in the kidney, where the veins, arteries and ureter enter the kidney in the centre of the organ. Likewise the spleen and the single vessel that accesses the gallbladder. It is, I believe why all the organs are twisted into loops. It spreads the pressure inside the organs and takes the pressure off the inlets and outlets.

All the organs of the body are designed to allow fluids in and allow fluids out, but they are only allowed out at certain times. These right angle bends are the kinks in the garden hose that control when fluids, solids and babies are let out.

All this from an increase in intra-abdominal pressure!!! Intraabdominal pressure is powerful stuff.

Louise

Christine

May 20, 2011 - 12:55pm

You will be happy to know, Louise, that science is keeping up with us! :)

We received feedback from a potential author of a Village Post article on her rendition of yoga breathing. I had to reject her article because it was not in line with WW principles. She responded:

“The transversus abdominis is well established, since 1992 and prior, through dozens of randomized, double blinded studies in the US and Australia, as the main stabilizer of the lumbar spine.  Its synergistic support system and the science supporting the [yoga] breath have been peer reviewed and field tested by literally thousands of licensed medical professionals throughout the United States.  I have spoken and wrote about this breath type and related topics, supported and sponsored by national organizations, hospitals, and clinics throughout the United States since 2000 - specifically because it is well grounded in medicine and science and brings new evidence base to the field of yoga.”

She is certainly correct that the status quo is ubiquitous, has much “science” behind it, and is very hard to change.

However, in an astonishing, published-ahead-of-print study in SPINE journal, it has been proven that the psoas muscle is the major stabilizer of the lumbar spine. I will write more about this in the June edition of the Post.

This is no surprise to us. It is the psoas that elongates the lumbar spine, lifting the entire breathing apparatus into optimal position. “Yoga breathing” pulls in the abdominal wall before inspiration so that the rib cage expands instead of the belly. This works against the dynamics that you describe - of the breath placing our organs in the pelvis - and keeping them in place throughout our lifespan.

I have always had a hunch that the major problem with prolapsed women is that, while they may have a lot of belly on the outside, they have tight fascia on the inside. Pulling in the belly since puberty causes the entire internal structure that you describe to become contracted and misshapen.

More to come...

Christine

Grandma Joy

May 20, 2011 - 4:31pm

Christine,

I am so looking forward to what you have to say about this. I'm having a recurring problem right now with these exact spots. I have several muscles that were atrophying and accupuncture has helped tremendously with that to bring more blood flow to the areas. Those spots are L3, L4, T12, T1 & T2. The lumbar stays out of place which causes the muscles in my hips to get whonkeyed as do the outside leg muscles. Today, even trying to sit in WW posture, seems to make the psoas, in the groin area, pull or bunch, not sure which. And the SIJ's are screaming.

I am certainly making progress with the yoga and WW exercises but I believe I have restrictions that must be addressed first in order to achieve strength in these areas so I can reach my goals.

Anxiously waiting...
Grandma Joy

csf

May 20, 2011 - 5:45pm

You know, Louise, the paragraph below really resonated with me.

But I was wondering because of some of the things you said....about leaving that hole open inside for organs to fall into if we are doing certain maneuvers..... Well, right before this disasterous week of who knows what kind of pain, etc...I did do a maneuver that is perhaps related or not ..but I realize wow that was probably really dumb of me....And the maneuver is, I colored my hair...then washed out the dye in the shower, and leaned BACK into the shower behind me so that I would not let the dye drip down along my back.

That's probably a really awful way to lean, right? So standing with my back to the shower behind me, with the spray falling behind me hitting just my head/hair and not my body because the rest of my body was in front of the shower spray. Does that describe it clearly? Something like a backbend but mostly just my upper shoulders and neck and head. I guess it was really dumb. And now that I think about it, that painful few days came right after that. Mabye coincidence. Trying now to think of a different/better way to rinse out my hair at home after I've colored it. I do not have someone to help. OH, uh oh, I just realized y'all are going to say it's chemicals and that I should go natural. Man, this gets harder by the minute! God is surely making me let go of pride. lol Anyway I'm still in happy mode from a good day at work and for physical relief!! : )

louiseds

May 20, 2011 - 7:13pm

You got it! Now you are starting to think! I agree that leaning over backwards may have contributed significantly to your troubles. Perhaps you could use one of those plastic hoseswith a rose on the end, that you attach to the tap in the hand basin. Bend forwards over the hand basin. Then when you have finished doing your hair and got dressed, do some firebreathing or something that will get your pelvic organs into the right positions again.

We all find out the hard way about what activities cause our POP problems. Then you just have to figure out an alternative way of getting the same result, and how to get back to the good state again. Sometimes it takes a couple of days. You eventually learn to trust your body to recover, because it always does, unless you stuff up some other activity. You just have to become more aware of your body in space.

Christine

May 20, 2011 - 10:37pm

Don’t know about dyeing hair, but want to mention that keeping your hips stationary while lifting arms overhead and bending back at the thoracic spine is a wonderful psoas stretch in a healthy, flexible body. The supportive position of the pelvis does not change from normal standing. That’s the stretch I begin the current yoga program with. :)

Let’s get real...prolapse is a decades-in-the-making progressive condition that cannot be blamed on any single “maneuver”.

louiseds

May 20, 2011 - 11:24pm

Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting that the rinsing manoeuvre had caused CSF's prolapse, but that it may have triggered the sudden onset of symptoms, the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. We know from research that many women have POP for years and do not realise it because they have no symptoms that they can identify as being enough to send them to a doctor for a diagnosis. Yes, I agree. There are many causes and interactions between the causes. It often takes a long time to develop. The development of symptoms can be so gradual that the woman does not realise they are getting worse, until one day she realises that 'things are not right down there'.

csf

May 21, 2011 - 9:09am

Yes, yes, Louise and Christine, we are all on the same page. That maneuver was not before I realized the POP. It was this past week, right before I felt so lousy. Louise was reiterating that when one does a thoughtless maneuver, one can recover. She was pointing out this is a specific example for me. Because I leaned back in a weird way and was thinking at the time, "wait, this can't be good." (wasn't easy lol but I was trying to keep the chemicals off the rest of my body)

And Louise was pointing out to listen to those moments, and try to get ahead of them. But that we all have times where we jump a fence or lift a bag that we realize was too heavy or whatever...and have a set back. She was encouraging me and telling me this was one of those times. And indeed, it was. I don't know for 100 percent sure that was the set back moment, of course. We never know FOR CERTAIN what set what off. And yes, yes, this overall happens over decades. But this week was really super hard. But I seem to have recovered. My first clear first-hand lesson in a big setback.

I never thought of buying one of those hose things and attaching it to the sink. That would work much better. Then, yes, I'll do what I can right after to sort of hit re-start. If that doesn't work, I'll have to give up coloring my hair because a set back like that is just not worth anything to enhance looks. I'd rather look my age than ever go through a week like that again! It was about three very intense days of weird this and that hurting and going weird inside me. I am feeling normal again. Thank You, God and thank you women for the advice. My gosh, what a challenging thing this is. Are we not like super heroes for surviving it, then going on to help others. And to those of you who get frustrated with teaching me - I WILL learn this. One cannot stay innocent forever. I will get it. And I feel very strongly surgery is NOT the way to go. Hard as this is, and indeed it's hard to imagine harder, I do see surgery as an avalanche of problems and not something I would recommend to anyone.

I understand now the "nature's pessary" comments from before. Nicki low, in other words, was holding my rectum in, I guess, in a way. That I think might explain that when Nicki was back and feeling terrific, I at one point started to feel a vague cannon ball heavy feeling ANYWAY but behind me - and couldn't figure it out. I guess that was sort of the counterbalance, she went up, but something else lowered. Hearing the theory is different from recognizing it in your own body.

I tell you, every day I gain more and more respect for my mother. She died four years ago. And I visited her grave on Mother's Day, to apologize to her. Wish I'd known then what I know now. Today I went to the store. A friend's husband died and she can't afford a funeral. No one seems to understand since we live in a wealthy area.

So a few of us decided we will cook the funeral luncheon and bring it to a venue - so she can have a repasse for her husband.

I asked to bring things that don't take preparation. I bought homemade cheesecakes and some other food platters. But funny thing is, my shoe broke, I cut my foot terribly, and there I am today, struggling to carry my items, with a bleeding foot and a cannon ball inside me....lol...and I was thinking how difficult it was to successfully speak in a calm way in the store. lol lol I did!! A woman said to me in the parking lot, "why didn't you ask me for help?" when she realized. lol And I said, "I'm getting so strong, it's ok, I managed." ( I limped to find a cart, with my bleeding foot, and patiently one at a time loaded things, as Louise had said. lol).

If I hadn't just gone thru my own challenge doing a funeral for my husband, I would not have continued. But I know how impossible it is for my friend. So continued. I was half laughing in the car and kind of had a light bulb moment of my mother's shrill voice, that I always found so had to take.

"No wonder she was shrill," I thought. My gosh, she had POP very young! With little children! And yet managed all these things like shopping, etc. Little wonder small things upset her. Now I know, they weren't such small things.

So it's so bittersweet that the more difficult this gets, the more I see my mother loved me and what a great woman she was! She stuck it out! And never complained to me. Amazing.