When Is It Safe to Run After Giving Birth? What the Evidence Says

The six-week postpartum visit is not, and was never designed to be, a clearance to run. The evidence supports three separate answers. Low-impact movement — walking, breathing work, gentle pelvic floor training — can begin early and is one of the better-supported interventions in postpartum medicine.¹ Most postpartum runners take their first run around 12 weeks, but that is an observed median from a survey of 881 women, not a rule anyone published.² And readiness is decided by symptom-free tolerance of progressively higher load, not by a date.³

This article summarises published research and clinical guidelines. It is not individual medical advice. Postpartum recovery varies enormously between people and between pregnancies, and no article can assess your pelvic floor, your abdominal wall, or your delivery history. If you are postpartum and want to return to running, get a pelvic health assessment — every major guideline recommends one regardless of how you delivered — and talk to your own clinician before acting on anything here.

Where the “6-week clearance” actually comes from

Nobody ever published “six weeks equals go run.” The six-week visit is an obstetric follow-up: healing, contraception, mood, feeding. It was never designed to load-test a pelvic floor.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists made this explicit in 2018. Committee Opinion 736 recommends contact with an obstetric provider within the first 3 weeks postpartum, ongoing care as needed, and a comprehensive visit no later than 12 weeks after birth, stating that postpartum care “should become an ongoing process, rather than a single encounter.”⁴

ACOG’s separate opinion on exercise, Committee Opinion 804, says physically active people can continue or resume activity postpartum and that exercise is safe and beneficial for most.⁵ It gives no running-specific timeline. Neither document contains the sentence the internet attributes to them.

The “six-week clearance” is a folk rule built on the scheduling convention of an appointment — and what replaced it was over-claimed in the opposite direction.

So what does the evidence actually say about timing?

The honest answer is that the field has revised itself twice in six years, and the current standard is a GRADE-based guideline that does not name a running date at all.

2019 — the guideline that created the “12 weeks” rule. Physiotherapists Tom Goom, Gráinne Donnelly, and Emma Brockwell published a free clinical guideline for professionals managing postnatal runners. It recommended a low-impact timeline through the first three months, then “a return to running between 3-6 months postnatal, at the earliest.”⁶ That is the source of the widely-shared “wait 12 weeks” figure — and the authors were unusually honest about its status. They graded it Level 4 evidence, the weakest tier, writing that their approach “is based on expert clinical consensus drawing from the best available evidence. No studies specific to the postnatal population have been carried out to evaluate readiness to return to exercise.”⁶ The IOC expert group’s 2017 evidence summary had already documented the same vacuum.⁷

2024 — the same authors moved off the rigid rule. An international Delphi consensus led by Dr Shefali Christopher, PT, DPT, PhD, of Tufts University — with Donnelly, Brockwell, and Professor Kari Bø among the co-authors — surveyed 118 clinicians and exercise professionals across three rounds. Its central conclusion: “following a minimum 3-week period of rest and recovery, an individualised timeline and gradual return to running progression can be considered.”³ Screening for medical and psychological concerns, current physical capacity, and prior training history is recommended first. That is a materially different statement from “wait three to six months,” written largely by the same people.

2025 — the current standard of care. The Canadian guideline for physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep in the first year postpartum, led by Dr Margie Davenport, PhD, of the Program for Pregnancy and Postpartum Health at the University of Alberta, followed GRADE methodology across seven commissioned systematic reviews. Following its recommendations is likely to produce large improvements in psychological well-being, pelvic, musculoskeletal and cardiometabolic health, and reduced fatigue, with moderate certainty and without adverse events.¹ It does not issue a running date. Donnelly and colleagues had already reframed the question as a staged process rather than a single gate.⁸ The field has moved away from the date, toward the criteria.

Phase	Typical window	What’s appropriate	Source
Rest and recovery	Weeks 0–3	Walking, breathing work, pelvic floor muscle exercises, basic core work	2024 Delphi consensus3; 2019 guideline6
Low-impact rebuild	Weeks 3–12	Progressive walking, strength work, squats/lunges/bridging, low-impact cardio, gradual loading	2019 guideline appendix6
Run-readiness screen	From ~week 6	Pelvic health assessment regardless of delivery mode; load, impact and strength testing once low-impact work is symptom-free	2019 guideline6
Walk-run progression	Individualised; observed median first run 12 weeks	Walk-run protocol, gradual increases in duration then intensity, continued strength training	Moore et al. 20212; 2024 Delphi consensus3
Return to pre-pregnancy volume	Highly variable; no published timeline	Full training load, symptom-gated	Predictors reported in Moore et al. 20212

“Individualised progression” is correct advice and close to useless without a mechanism — it names the kind of plan someone needs without producing one. That is the class of problem SensAI exists to solve: turning a general principle into a specific week’s plan from what the wearable actually recorded. It is a coaching app, not a medical device, and belongs strictly on the far side of clinical clearance.

What about a C-section?

Surgical delivery adds a healing constraint and does not exempt anyone from pelvic floor screening. The 2019 guideline notes that abdominal fascia has regained only 51–59% of its original tensile strength at six weeks post-caesarean, and 73–93% at six to seven months; uterine scar remodelling likewise extends past the six-week mark.⁶ That argues for patience with abdominal loading specifically — not a different pelvic floor pathway.

On screening the guideline is unambiguous: every postnatal mother, “regardless of delivery mode,” should be offered a pelvic health assessment from six weeks with a specialist physiotherapist.⁶ Nine months of pregnancy loads the pelvic floor regardless of how the baby exits.

One counter-intuitive finding is often reported backwards. In the study led by Dr Isabel Moore, PhD, of Cardiff Metropolitan University, caesarean delivery was associated with lower odds of running-related stress urinary incontinence (OR 0.39, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.65).² That is one cross-sectional finding about one symptom — not evidence that caesarean delivery is protective overall, and not a reason to skip screening.

The readiness tests that actually exist

The 2019 guideline is the only published source that specifies concrete run-readiness tests. The pass condition applies to every load and impact item: the movement is performed without pain, heaviness, dragging or incontinence.⁶

In short: 30 minutes of walking, single-leg balance, single-leg squat, jogging on the spot, bounding and hopping — each performed without pain, heaviness, dragging or incontinence — is what the guideline uses as the run-readiness screen.⁶

Load and impact test	Target
Walking	30 minutes
Single-leg balance	10 seconds
Single-leg squat	10 reps each side
Jog on the spot	1 minute
Forward bounds	10 reps
Hop in place	10 reps each leg
Single-leg “running man” (opposite arm and hip flexion/extension)	10 reps each side

Strength test (repetitions counted to fatigue)	Target
Single-leg calf raise	Aim for 20 reps
Single-leg bridge	Aim for 20 reps
Single-leg sit to stand	Aim for 20 reps
Side-lying hip abduction	Aim for 20 reps

Two caveats matter more than the tables.

First, these tests are consensus-derived and unvalidated — the guideline’s own Level 4 grading applies directly to them, and nobody has shown that passing them reduces injury.⁶ They are a structured way for a clinician to provoke symptoms under load before a first run does.

Second, the strength targets are frequently misread as gates. The guideline says the opposite: weakness “should not be considered a barrier for return to running but instead identify where strength work can be directed.”⁶ Failing to hit 20 single-leg calf raises is information, not a verdict — and strength training fundamentals cover the same movement patterns.

Leaking when you run is common — it is not something to train through

About one-third of women have urinary incontinence after childbirth, and up to one-tenth have faecal incontinence.⁹ Common is not the same as normal, and nothing in the evidence supports pushing through it.

Supervised pelvic floor muscle training has real, quantified support. The 2025 meta-analysis by Beamish and colleagues — 65 studies, 21,334 participants — found moderate-certainty evidence that it reduced the odds of urinary incontinence by 37% (7 RCTs, n=1,930; OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.97) and pelvic organ prolapse by 56% (1 RCT, n=123; OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.91).¹⁰

The honest limitation is timing. The 2020 Cochrane review — 46 trials, 10,832 women — found that training started antenatally in continent women probably lowers urinary incontinence risk in late pregnancy by 62% (RR 0.38, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.72; 6 trials, 624 women). For training started after delivery, the effect on late-postnatal urinary incontinence was uncertain (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.71 to 1.09; 3 trials, 826 women).⁹ The reviewers concluded that a population-based approach to postnatal training is not likely to reduce urinary incontinence.

The distinction that matters: broadcast, unsupervised, generic “core work” is what the Cochrane data found uncertain. Individually assessed, supervised training in people who have symptoms is a different intervention, and it is the one the guidelines point toward.

A dose question also remains open. Professor Kari Bø, PT, PhD, of the Department of Sports Medicine at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo — one of the most published researchers in pelvic floor exercise science — reviewed both sides of the argument with Ingrid Nygaard and reported that mild-to-moderate activity such as walking decreases urinary incontinence risk, while female athletes are about three times more likely to have urinary incontinence than controls.¹¹ Their conclusion is the most useful sentence in this literature: intra-abdominal pressure and pelvic floor strength vary between activities and between women, so “the threshold for optimal or negative effects on the pelvic floor almost certainly differs from person to person.”¹¹

Running through leakage to see whether it settles is not supported by any of this; assessment is the recommended step, not a heavier training block.

Diastasis recti: the gap is a poor measure of anything

A measurable abdominal gap after childbirth is the statistical norm, and its width predicts less than almost anyone assumes.

Prevalence. In a prospective cohort of 300 first-time mothers led by Sperstad and Bø, diastasis recti was present in 33.1% at gestation week 21, 60.0% at 6 weeks postpartum, 45.4% at 6 months, and 32.6% at 12 months.¹² A finding present in six of ten women at six weeks describes normal postpartum anatomy, not a diagnosis.

Consequences. In that cohort there was no difference in reported lumbopelvic pain between women with and without diastasis at 12 months (p=0.10).¹² A systematic review by Benjamin and colleagues covering 12 studies and 2,242 participants found no significant association between the presence of diastasis and lumbo-pelvic pain or incontinence, and only a small association with pelvic organ prolapse — on evidence the authors rated as weak.¹³

Treatment effect. A 2023 meta-analysis by the same group — 16 trials, 698 postnatal women — found moderate-certainty evidence that abdominal exercise reduced inter-recti distance by a mean of 0.43 cm (95% CI −0.82 to −0.05) versus usual care (6 trials, n=161).¹⁴ Real, and as the authors concluded, not clinically significant.

The field is not settled: the 2025 BJSM meta-analysis found low-certainty evidence of a greater reduction in inter-recti distance following abdominal training, and concluded the evidence supports it for that purpose.¹⁰ Two credible syntheses, two emphases, both measuring millimetres of gap width.

A more interesting line of work looks at what the tissue does rather than how wide it is. Lee and Hodges used ultrasound to show that a natural curl-up in women with diastasis narrows the inter-rectus distance but increases distortion of the linea alba, while pre-activating transversus abdominis produced less narrowing and less distortion.¹⁵ The measurement everyone tracks and the mechanics that might matter can move in opposite directions.

The reasonable reframe is function over gap width — whether the abdominal wall transfers load without doming, pain or symptoms, which is what the return-to-running tests are built around.

What exercise reliably does help with

The best-evidenced benefits are not the ones people search for. The evidence on mood, sleep and pain is far stronger than anything concerning the abdominal gap.

Depressive symptoms. Pritchett, Daley and Jolly pooled 13 RCTs with 1,734 participants and found aerobic exercise significantly reduced postpartum depressive symptoms (SMD −0.44, 95% CI −0.75 to −0.12).¹⁶ A separate meta-analysis of 12 studies reported an effect size of 0.41 (95% CI 0.28 to 0.54), rising to 0.67 (95% CI 0.44 to 0.90) in mothers meeting depressive-symptom criteria at baseline.¹⁷ Larger effects in those with more symptoms matches how exercise affects mental health more broadly.

Sleep and fatigue. The 2025 review by Jones and colleagues, covering 12 studies and 3,096 participants, found moderate-certainty evidence that exercise improved sleep quality (5 RCTs, n=375; SMD −0.44, 95% CI −0.79 to −0.09) and high-certainty evidence for improved daytime/general fatigue (6 RCTs, n=535; SMD −0.56, 95% CI −1.06 to −0.05).¹⁸ No effect was found for sleep duration, latency, efficiency or disturbance — exercise improves how sleep feels, not how much of it a new parent gets.

That has a practical edge. Postpartum sleep is fragmented in a way no fixed 12-week plan can model — the plan is written before anyone knows which nights will be broken. SensAI reads wearable recovery data and scales the day’s session down accordingly, removing the binary choice between skipping entirely and pushing through a session written for a rested version of you.

Low back and pelvic pain. The 2025 review by Ruchat, Davenport and colleagues found moderate-certainty evidence that exercise, including trunk-strengthening work, reduced lumbopelvic pain severity by 2.21 points on a 0–10 visual analogue scale (95% CI −3.33 to −1.08) across 4 RCTs with 210 participants, with a large effect on related disability (6 RCTs, n=296; SMD −1.17).¹⁹ The categories that work here overlap heavily with general low back pain exercises.

Two myths worth retiring

Exercise will hurt your milk supply

The relevant meta-analysis is small but clear on direction. Daley and colleagues pooled 4 RCTs (5 comparisons, 170 participants) and found maternal exercise did not significantly affect breastfed infant weight gain — a difference in mean weight gain of 18.6 g (95% CI −113.52 to 150.80, P=0.73).²⁰ Their conclusion carries the caveat: mothers can exercise and breastfeed without detriment to infant growth, “but this is based on limited evidence, and more research is required before this finding is confirmed.”²⁰ No signal of harm on a thin evidence base is not the same as proof of safety.

Relaxin makes you injury-prone for months after birth

This is the highest-risk claim in postpartum fitness, because the mechanism is real and the conclusion drawn from it is not evidenced. Relaxin does affect connective tissue: the review by Dehghan and colleagues describes how it alters cartilage and tendon properties by activating collagenase, and is involved in bone remodelling and the healing of injured ligaments and skeletal muscle.²¹ That is established physiology.

What does not exist is evidence that persistently elevated postpartum relaxin makes women injury-prone. The 2019 guideline states it directly: theories that higher postnatal relaxin levels increase the risk of joint laxity and potential injury “have not been proven.”⁶ Its authors note it is not fully understood why some breastfeeding women experience increased joint laxity relative to their own baseline, and that the overall hormonal environment — not relaxin in isolation — may be involved. Studies of anterior cruciate ligament injury in non-pregnant athletes are sometimes imported here; they are a different population answering a different question.

The practical advice does not depend on the claim being true. Progressing load gradually after months of detraining is correct regardless of hormone status. The mechanism is disputed; the ramp rate is not.

Red flags — stop and get assessed

Two sources define what should interrupt a return to running. The 2025 Delphi labels its list relative contraindications, and the 2019 guideline frames its own as grounds to seek assessment and referral — reasons to stop and be checked, not permanent prohibitions.

Category	Signs and symptoms
Pelvic floor / abdominal wall6	Urinary or faecal incontinence, or urgency that is difficult to defer; heaviness, pressure, dragging or bulging in the pelvic area; pelvic or low back pain before or during running; obstructive defecation; pendular abdomen or a noticeable midline gap with reduced abdominal function
Bleeding622	Ongoing or new vaginal bleeding unrelated to the menstrual cycle
Cardiovascular22	Loss of consciousness, dizziness or lightheadedness on exertion; new chest pain, discomfort or angina-like symptoms with exertion; calf pain or swelling suggestive of deep vein thrombosis; postpartum cardiomyopathy, haemodynamic instability, unstable hypertension
Surgical / abdominal22	Caesarean section with symptoms that worsen with activity; severe abdominal pain
Systemic22	Anaemia, malnutrition, eating disorder, excessive fatigue; acute systemic infection with fever; breathing difficulties
Musculoskeletal22	Fractures or other significant musculoskeletal injury

The 2025 list comes from a Delphi study led by Davenport that reached consensus on 46 of 49 statements across 120 professionals, identified 24 relative contraindications to moderate-to-vigorous activity in the first year postpartum, and operationalised the result as a screening tool — the Get Active Questionnaire for Postpartum.²² A five-minute questionnaire is a better artefact than a number of weeks.

How to actually progress once you’re cleared

The 2024 companion consensus, led by Rita Deering with the same author group, addressed programme design. It reached consensus on 42 of 47 statements (89%) across 118 professionals, recommending a period of relative rest, gradual increases in duration and intensity, a walk-run protocol to start, and strength training — with modifications based on musculoskeletal or pelvic symptoms, sleep, mental health, lactation, and energy availability.²³

That last clause is the operative one and the hardest to execute. The 2019 guideline points at a couch-to-5K-style plan as the model for the running side,⁶ and a structured walk-run progression handles the volume — but not sleep, lactation, or energy availability, which are the variables that actually determine whether a given week’s plan is appropriate.

Walk-run progression is fundamentally a ramp rate and progressive overload problem, and the classic failure mode is well known outside the postpartum context: doing too much on the good days. SensAI applies conservative progression automatically rather than leaving the ramp rate to how motivated someone feels on a Tuesday.

Two findings from the 881-runner cohort are worth knowing first. Running during pregnancy nearly tripled the odds of returning to running postpartum (OR 2.81, 95% CI 1.90 to 4.15), and lower fear of movement independently increased those odds.² For running-related stress urinary incontinence, the strongest predictors were having had it before pregnancy (OR 4.01, 95% CI 2.05 to 7.82) or during it (OR 4.49, 95% CI 2.86 to 7.06).² History carries forward: someone who leaked while running before pregnancy is describing an existing condition, not a postpartum one.

Progression here is symptom-gated in a way most templates cannot express, and SensAI adapts to reported readiness rather than executing a fixed sequence. It does not assess a pelvic floor and does not substitute for a pelvic health physiotherapist — that assessment is a separate, clinical step every guideline here recommends.

Frequently asked questions

When can I start running after giving birth?

There is no evidence-based date. The 2024 international Delphi consensus recommends a minimum three-week period of rest and recovery, after which an individualised timeline and gradual return-to-running progression can be considered, following screening for medical and psychological concerns, current physical capacity and prior training history.³ In a survey of 881 postpartum runners, the median first run was 12 weeks — an observation, not a recommendation.² The 2019 guideline’s older “3–6 months at the earliest” figure was graded Level 4 evidence by its own authors, who have since helped revise it.⁶

Can I exercise before my 6-week check-up?

The consensus supports low-impact movement in an uncomplicated recovery. The 2019 guideline’s early progression starts pelvic floor exercises, basic core work and walking in weeks 0–2, adding squats, lunges and bridging in weeks 2–4.⁶ The 2024 Delphi frames the first three weeks as rest and recovery.³ Running is a separate question from movement.

When can I exercise or run after a C-section?

Low-impact movement follows the same early progression as a vaginal birth — pelvic floor exercises, basic core work and walking from weeks 0–2 in an uncomplicated recovery.⁶ For running, there is no published date, and no current guideline sets a different timeline by delivery mode. Abdominal fascia regains only 51–59% of its tensile strength by six weeks and 73–93% by six to seven months, which argues for patience with abdominal loading.⁶ The pelvic health assessment recommendation applies regardless.

Why do I leak urine when I run postpartum?

Running produces repeated spikes in intra-abdominal pressure against a pelvic floor loaded for nine months, and about one-third of women experience urinary incontinence after childbirth.⁹ In the 881-runner study, the strongest predictors were having had running-related incontinence before or during pregnancy.² Supervised, individually assessed pelvic floor muscle training is the intervention with meta-analytic support — not more running.¹⁰

Will exercising reduce my milk supply?

The available meta-analysis of randomised trials measured infant growth rather than milk volume directly, and found no significant effect of maternal exercise on breastfed infant weight gain (18.6 g, 95% CI −113.52 to 150.80, P=0.73), on an evidence base the authors call limited.²⁰ The 2019 guideline separately advises attention to feed timing around runs, so the breasts are not uncomfortably full, and to hydration.⁶

How do I know if I have diastasis recti?

A clinician palpates the separation, typically above, at and below the umbilicus. What matters more is what it means: 60.0% of women had a measurable diastasis at six weeks postpartum, falling to 32.6% at 12 months.¹² Its presence was not significantly associated with lumbopelvic pain or incontinence across 12 studies and 2,242 participants.¹³

Are there exercises to avoid with diastasis recti?

No guideline reviewed here publishes an avoid-list, and the evidence does not support one. The most relevant finding is mechanical rather than prohibitive: Lee and Hodges showed that a natural curl-up narrows the inter-rectus distance while increasing distortion of the linea alba, whereas pre-activating transversus abdominis produced less narrowing and less distortion.¹⁵ The practical test is response, not the movement’s name — whether the abdominal wall transfers load without doming, pain or symptoms. Diastasis was not significantly associated with lumbopelvic pain or incontinence across 12 studies and 2,242 participants, so a gap alone is not a reason to remove an exercise.¹³

Is it too late to start pelvic floor training a year postpartum?

Nothing in the evidence sets an expiry date. The Cochrane review’s uncertainty about postnatally-started training applies to unselected, population-level delivery, not to targeted treatment in someone with symptoms.⁹ The 2025 meta-analysis found moderate-certainty reductions in incontinence odds with postpartum pelvic floor muscle training.¹⁰

Is relaxin still in your system after birth, and does it make you injury-prone?

How long relaxin remains elevated is not what the injury question turns on — the 2019 guideline notes it is not fully understood why some breastfeeding women experience increased joint laxity relative to their own baseline, and points to the overall hormonal environment rather than relaxin in isolation.⁶ The mechanism is real — relaxin alters cartilage and tendon properties via collagenase activation.²¹ The injury claim is not established: the 2019 guideline states that theories linking higher postnatal relaxin to increased joint laxity and injury risk “have not been proven.”⁶ Studies of ACL injury in non-pregnant athletes do not answer this question. Gradual load progression is sensible regardless.

What if I ran through my whole pregnancy — can I start sooner?

Running during pregnancy was associated with nearly triple the odds of returning to running postpartum (OR 2.81, 95% CI 1.90 to 4.15).² That is an association with returning, not evidence that an earlier start is safe. The 2024 consensus still recommends a minimum three-week rest and recovery period followed by individualised progression and screening, irrespective of prior training.³

Should I see a pelvic health physiotherapist if I have no symptoms?

Every guideline reviewed here recommends the assessment be offered regardless of symptoms or delivery mode.⁶ Pelvic floor dysfunction is not reliably self-detected, and the 2024 consensus recommends screening for medical concerns, physical capacity and training history before returning.³ Cost and access were themselves identified as barriers.²³

The bottom line

Criteria, not calendar. The six-week appointment was never a running clearance, ACOG replaced the single-visit model in 2018, and the “12 weeks” figure that filled the vacuum came from a guideline whose authors graded it Level 4 and then helped revise it. What is left is a sequence, not a date: early low-impact movement, a pelvic health assessment from around six weeks regardless of how you delivered, symptom-free tolerance of progressively higher load, and a walk-run progression modified for sleep, lactation, symptoms and energy availability.

No article can assess your pelvic floor, your abdominal wall, or your delivery history — which is why the assessment is the recommendation, and why a training app is only useful on the far side of it.

This field has already corrected itself once, publicly, within six years — and the clinicians who wrote the guidance that went too far are the ones who revised it. That is science working correctly, and it also means the current answer is provisional.

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References

Footnotes

1. Davenport MH, Ruchat SM, Jaramillo Garcia A, Ali MU, Forte M, Beamish N, Fleming K, Adamo KB, Brunet-Pagé É, Chari R, Lane KN, Mottola MF, Neil-Sztramko SE. “2025 Canadian guideline for physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep throughout the first year post partum.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2025;59(8):515-526. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40139673/ ↩ ↩²

2. Moore IS, James ML, Brockwell E, Perkins J, Jones AL, Donnelly GM. “Multidisciplinary, biopsychosocial factors contributing to return to running and running related stress urinary incontinence in postpartum women.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2021;55(22):1286-1292. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34144950/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

3. Christopher SM, Donnelly G, Brockwell E, Bo K, Davenport MH, De Vivo M, Dufour S, Forner L, Mills H, Moore IS, Olson A, Deering RE. “Clinical and exercise professional opinion of return-to-running readiness after childbirth: an international Delphi study and consensus statement.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2024;58(6):299-312. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38148108/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

4. “ACOG Committee Opinion No. 736: Optimizing Postpartum Care.” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2018;131(5):e140-e150. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29683911/ ↩

5. “Physical Activity and Exercise During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period: ACOG Committee Opinion, Number 804.” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2020;135(4):e178-e188. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32217980/ ↩

6. Goom T, Donnelly G, Brockwell E. “Returning to running postnatal — guidelines for medical, health and fitness professionals managing this population.” March 2019. https://absolute.physio/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/returning-to-running-postnatal-guidelines.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³

7. Bø K, Artal R, Barakat R, Brown WJ, Davies GAL, Dooley M, Evenson KR, Haakstad LAH, Kayser B, Kinnunen TI, Larsén K, Mottola MF, Nygaard I, van Poppel M, Stuge B, Khan KM. “Exercise and pregnancy in recreational and elite athletes: 2016/17 evidence summary from the IOC Expert Group Meeting, Lausanne. Part 3—exercise in the postpartum period.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2017;51(21):1516-1525. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28642221/ ↩

8. Donnelly GM, Moore IS, Brockwell E, Rankin A, Cooke R. “Reframing return-to-sport postpartum: the 6 Rs framework.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2022;56(5):244-245. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34836883/ ↩

9. Woodley SJ, Lawrenson P, Boyle R, Cody JD, Mørkved S, Kernohan A, Hay-Smith EJC. “Pelvic floor muscle training for preventing and treating urinary and faecal incontinence in antenatal and postnatal women.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2020;5(5):CD007471. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32378735/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

10. Beamish NF, Davenport MH, Ali MU, Gervais MJ, Sjwed TN, Bains G, Sivak A, Deering RE, Ruchat SM. “Impact of postpartum exercise on pelvic floor disorders and diastasis recti abdominis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2025;59(8):562-575. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39694630/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

11. Bø K, Nygaard IE. “Is Physical Activity Good or Bad for the Female Pelvic Floor? A Narrative Review.” Sports Medicine, 2020;50(3):471-484. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31820378/ ↩ ↩²

12. Sperstad JB, Tennfjord MK, Hilde G, Ellström-Engh M, Bø K. “Diastasis recti abdominis during pregnancy and 12 months after childbirth: prevalence, risk factors and report of lumbopelvic pain.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2016;50(17):1092-1096. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27324871/ ↩ ↩² ↩³

13. Benjamin DR, Frawley HC, Shields N, van de Water ATM, Taylor NF. “Relationship between diastasis of the rectus abdominis muscle (DRAM) and musculoskeletal dysfunctions, pain and quality of life: a systematic review.” Physiotherapy, 2019;105(1):24-34. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30217494/ ↩ ↩² ↩³

14. Benjamin DR, Frawley HC, Shields N, Peiris CL, van de Water ATM, Bruder AM, Taylor NF. “Conservative interventions may have little effect on reducing diastasis of the rectus abdominis in postnatal women - A systematic review and meta-analysis.” Physiotherapy, 2023;119:54-71. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36934466/ ↩

15. Lee D, Hodges PW. “Behavior of the Linea Alba During a Curl-up Task in Diastasis Rectus Abdominis: An Observational Study.” Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy, 2016;46(7):580-589. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27363572/ ↩ ↩²

16. Pritchett RV, Daley AJ, Jolly K. “Does aerobic exercise reduce postpartum depressive symptoms? a systematic review and meta-analysis.” British Journal of General Practice, 2017;67(663):e684-e691. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28855163/ ↩

17. Poyatos-León R, García-Hermoso A, Sanabria-Martínez G, Álvarez-Bueno C, Cavero-Redondo I, Martínez-Vizcaíno V. “Effects of exercise-based interventions on postpartum depression: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” Birth, 2017;44(3):200-208. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28589648/ ↩

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