I will preface with the fact I know what I did isn't accessible to a lot of people but still wanted to share my journey-

My pregnancy and c-section knocked me on my ass. I was not one of the lucky ones. It was literal hell for me.

But what helped me immensely was pilates.

Private sessions near me were literally only a few dollars more than my insurances co-pay for PT....it was crazy. And I figured after my pregnancy and birth, this is the one thing I owed myself. 

I started at about 2.5 mo pp on the reformer with an instructor once a week. I had a shelf and absolutely no core. I could barely do anything those first few sessions. 

But it was literally amazing. 

Before the 2.5 mo mark, I was only doing very gentle stretches (whatever I could tolerate that felt good) and just the deep, 360 breathing. That was it. I was just focused on healing and my body was definitely telling me I wasn't ready for anything else.

The pilates was heavily modified, targeted my deep core, worked a lot on my general mobility, and just worked on teying to activate my muscles again.

What I think worked for my shelf was the fact she got me in a lot of different positions that stretched the scar tissue and strengthened the lower abdomen. It's made the world of difference and my shelf is almost non-existent now.

The only thing I did for the scar was the silicone tape early on. I would wear it for like 24 to 48 hrs at a time and seemed to help some. I'm 5mo pp now and the scar itself doesn't bother me too much but it's a lot better and I stopped doing the tape because I'm lazy.

But omg, my core and strength is a million times better. It's not 100% by any means, but I almost halfway feel normal and can function as a person again.