Why Do I Still Have a Post-Baby Belly 1 Year After Giving Birth?

How do you reduce your tummy 1 year after giving birth? Great question! After delivering a baby, whether that be vaginally or via caesarian, your body is going to need some time to heal. Most doctors will clear you for exercise on average 6–8 weeks postpartum, but your body will still need some time to ease back into it.

One thing I’ve noticed as a common thread with many of my fellow mom friends and the Upspring moms I get to interact with daily, is that they all have this idea of "bouncing back" after giving birth as something that’s going to happen over night.

Please, please, PLEASE, can we let this concept of ‘bouncing back’ die already?!

It took your body 9 months to grow a human being and you should give it at least that long, ideally longer, to return to its new normal. While there are definitely women who get back into their pre-pregnancy jeans a week after giving birth, those are the outliers and definitely not the norm. Give yourself grace and be patient, in time it will heal and you'll feel yourself again.

To your question about why you still have a post-baby belly, there are a few things you’ll need to consider before proceeding with action. You’ll need to assess where your body is at for anything to be effective.

Using a belly wrap after birth can help you a lot, but if you didn’t use one it doesn’t mean that you’re out of luck to get your body back in shape! Check out our triple compression Shrinkx Postpartum Charcoal Belly Wrap for your daily tummy support during recovery.

See below for changes in women's hips after giving birth. Our Shrinkx Hips Ultra postpartum Hip Wrap helps to narrow your hips while the hormone relaxin is still active in your body and pelvic joints are still soft and malleable.*

Relaxin stays in the body for 8 weeks postpartum, giving you a golden opportunity to shrink your hips to pre-pregnancy size … or smaller! Shrinkx Hips is the only postpartum compression wrap clinically proven to narrow hips. In a clinical study, 95% of moms who wore Shrinkx returned to their pre-pregnancy hip size or smaller.

The most common reason women struggle to get a flat stomach after having a baby is due to an issue known as diastasis recti.

Diastasis recti occurs when the tissue that holds your abdominal muscles together stretches or rips. In fact, there was a study in Norway that found nearly a third of moms have or develop diastasis recti a year after giving birth.

If I was to speculate, I think you might fall into this percentage of women who suffer from separated abs, but this is great news because this means there are specific, targeted exercises that can help you! 

There was an amazing and detailed post done by National Public Radio that shows you how to find out if you have diastasis recti and what you can do about it here.

Another common problem is an issue with your pelvic floor. It’s not as commonly discussed as diastasis recti is becoming, but still equally, if not more, important.

The pelvic floor affects things like urination and the ability to hold your internal organs up and in. Personally, I suffered from (and healed) a cystocele, which is when your bladder is LITERALLY falling out of your body (sorry for the TMI), but I think it’s very important to talk about the intense impact giving birth can have on a woman’s body.

Sending you lots of love, patience and grace. Please don’t compare your body to other moms and simply be kind to yourself. You grew a human!

Our bodies are powerful, amazing machines that can be fixed and tweaked if we listen to them. I hope the different possible issues I discussed here help you pinpoint what your body needs help with and that you are able to take some positive steps forward to heal.

We have moms around the country that have expressed wonderful stories of how our wraps and panties have aided in their recovery process.