You can do this assessment as soon as two weeks after delivery. 

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1. Lie on the floor with your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor.

2. Place one arm behind the head, elbow bent, as you would if you were about to do a sit-up.

3. Lift your head and neck slightly. 

4. With your free hand find your belly button and the line that runs vertically above and below.

5. Gently press your finger down along this line, looking for a vertical gap.

6. If you do feel a gap, measure it in finger widths. You might be able to fit one, two, or more fingers in there horizontally.

A line of 2 or more finger-width wide is considered DR. The depth of your DR is important as well. If you can go deep and the tissue is very soft, you want to focus on DR restoration before resuming conventional ab workouts, such as sit ups, upward dog, the cow part of ‘cat/cow’ and planks. 

If you have DR, do the short restorative exercises every other day. It takes time to retrain your connective tissue, so don’t become impatient and jump ahead as you can easily undo weeks worth of rehab exercises by doing the wrong ab move. 

If you have only recently given birth, you can use a belly wrap for any upper body workout/push ups and floor exercises, so you can protect your weak abs. I’ve found this one to be very helpful in getting my abs back after delivery. I wore it every night and as much as possible during the day for the first few weeks.