Almost every woman will have a diastasis by the end of pregnancy. A diastasis is when the two sides of your six-pack muscle (rectus abdominis) stretch, thin and move apart to make room for your growing baby So why is it being sold back to women as a problem they need to fix?

In this episode, Peta Titter (WHEN Founder and CEO, continence nurse and Pilates practitioner) and Dr Rhea Psereckis (WHEN Medical Director, GP and public health doctor) take on one of the most controversial topics in women’s health, and one Peta has spent over a decade researching.

They explain why a diastasis happens and the job it does in pregnancy, why “core” means far more than your six-pack, and why function should always come before aesthetics. They also unpack what the research can and can’t tell us, including why there’s still no agreed definition and no single exercise program proven to fix it.

Along the way they trace some popular fitness claims back to their source, including sit-ups in pregnancy, and look at checking, binding and surgery.

The episode ends with a simple message: listen to your body, and if someone is charging you money to fix your diastasis in six weeks, walk away.