Why Bloating Gets Worse After Having Kids - And What to do About It
Part One: Still Bloated No Matter What You Eat? Your Pelvic Floor Could Be to Blame
Part Two: Why Your Workouts Are Making Bloating Worse - And How to Fix It for Good
Part Three: Core Practices That Get Rid of Bloating and Flatten Your Belly
Part Four: Why Bloating Gets Worse After Having Kids - And What to do About It
Before kids, you might have dealt with occasional bloating after a big meal. Now you wake up bloated and look six months along by noon, even if you've only had coffee and toast. It probably feels like your body has betrayed you, but there's a very real reason this keeps happening, and more importantly, it's fixable.
The hormonal and mechanical changes that occur in your body during pregnancy and birth can create conditions for bloating to occur and persist. But despite what you might have been told, this isn't something you have to live with just because you're a mom now.
What Pregnancy and Birth Do to Your Core and Pelvic Floor
During pregnancy, your entire core undergoes massive changes that go far beyond your growing belly. Your abdominal muscles stretch and separate to make room for your baby, while your pelvic floor muscles also must change as a result of the new stress- they either stretch and weaken from supporting that extra weight for months, or (with good breathing patterns) they get stronger from the increased load.
Your organs literally shift position for nine-plus months. Your intestines get pushed up and to the sides, your stomach moves upward, and your bladder gets compressed downward. Even your ribcage expands to accommodate your growing baby.
Birth - whether vaginal or cesarean - requires the delicate coordination between your pelvic floor, diaphragm, and deep abdominal muscles to change and transform once again. First the core system had to expand, now it has to contract again. This phase of transformation between expansion and contraction typically requires specific healing practices to ensure full and optimal core muscle function is restored post partum. The restoration of proper core muscle coordination is essential for proper organ support and digestive function.
Without proper core training before and after birth, your body is more susceptible to core and pelvic floor dysfunction. When your core and pelvic floor muscles are no longer supporting optimal organ position and healthy digestion, bloating can feel so much worse than anything you experienced before having kids.
Why Your Digestion Changed After Kids
Your intestines may still be finding their way back to center after 10 months of pregnancy, affecting how efficiently food moves through your system. When organs aren't in their optimal position, digestion naturally slows down.
Weakened and separated abdominal muscles can't provide the support your digestive organs need to function properly. Without adequate muscle support, your organs will shift down and compress, leading poor circulation and that heavy, bloated feeling.
If you had a C-section, scar tissue creates restrictions in your abdomen that can affect organ position and intestinal movement. This tissue can bind organs together or create areas where normal movement gets restricted. C sections also impact breathing mechanics if not properly healed. If breathing mechanics become impacted, low belly pooch and pelvic floor dysfunction is typically the next thing to pop up.
Lack of sleep and life changes can lead to a chronic low level elevation in your nervous system. Staying in this elevated "fight or flight" mode, actually changes blood distribution in your body- increasing blood to your muscles and brain, and decreasing blood to your digestive system. This is ok if it occurs infrequently and for short periods of time. But to stay in this state chronically will cause digestive dysfunction and bloating. When your body is focused on survival, processing food becomes a lower priority.
Postpartum Factors Making Bloating Worse
Postpartum and motherhood come with additional challenges that compound the physical changes from pregnancy and birth.
- Sleep deprivation can affect your healthy gut bacteria and disrupt digestion.
- Improper breastfeeding posture compresses your digestive organs for hours each day.
- Carrying your baby creates compensation patterns throughout your body if you're always holding a baby on one hip or picking up toddlers.
When this happens, your core muscles develop imbalances that further compromise organ support. Plus, these things are happening while you have less time for proper meals, regular eating schedules, and stress management, which all significantly impact digestive health even under normal circumstances.
Why Most Popular Core Workouts Backfire
The fitness industry pushes the idea that you should return to intense exercise as soon as possible after birth. But your core needs proper rehabilitation, not more stress. Most postpartum fitness programs ignore organ positioning entirely.
Jumping back into high-impact exercise before your core system has healed makes everything worse. Running, jumping, and intense ab workouts increase abdominal pressure when your body can't handle it, which makes bloating, pelvic floor dysfunction and pain worse.
That six-week medical clearance doesn't mean your core is actually ready for intense exercise. It simply means your cervix has closed and you're not at risk for infection. Your core still needs time and specific rehabilitation to function properly again.
How to Relieve Postpartum Bloating
Postpartum bloating requires a different approach than general digestive protocols because you need to address the specific mechanical muscle changes that occurred during pregnancy and birth. The solution starts by restoring proper organ position through techniques that encourage each organ to settle back into center. Practicing specific breathing patterns and massage techniques designed for postpartum bodies is also very helpful to prevent and relieve bloating.
From there, you will be ready to retrain your core muscles with breathing exercises that don't create downward pressure, and instead lift and center your organs. Your pelvic floor, diaphragm, and abdominal muscles are reminded how to work together after months of being stretched and disrupted. Addressing any scar tissue or restrictions is equally important, especially if you had a C-section.
Join me inside The Core Recovery Method® and I'll teach you the entire protocol for post partum healing. I'll walk you through step by step how to gently restore normal movement, organ position, and core muscle function. Here are a few ways you can get started today:
Modified exercises you can do with kids around: Practice breathing exercises while breastfeeding, do gentle abdominal massage during nap time, and incorporate posture corrections throughout your day.
Posture corrections for mom life: Learn how to breastfeed without compressing your organs, use decompression breathing and neural spinal alignment when you carry kids, and set up your daily activities to promote better alignment.
Quick relief techniques: You can use specific breathing patterns for immediate bloating relief, gentle movements you can do anywhere, and positioning strategies that help when you're feeling uncomfortable.
Progressive healing: Start with the gentlest techniques and mini sessions of breath work throughout your day, and gradually progress to higher intensity and higher duration as your body heals and strengthens.
Postpartum bloating isn't "just part of being a mom."
Your body went through incredible changes, and with the right approach, it can heal and function even better than before. You can have a clear path forward that honors where your body is now while moving you toward where you want to be.
With The Core Recovery Method®, you can actually feel better than you did before kids! Many of my patients have found that properly restoring optimal core muscle function leads to better digestive health, a stronger pelvic floor, and improved overall confidence compared to their pre-pregnancy state.
This program provides a step-by-step approach specifically designed for the unique challenges of postpartum recovery. Instead of generic advice that ignores the realities of motherhood, you get a program that works with your body and your life as a mom. With the right approach, you can resolve your postpartum bloating and finally feel confident in your body again!
