That’s what women often ask when they get in touch or find out what I do for a living… ‘my youngest is 7… but I’m still blaming the mummy tummy (or jelly belly, muffin top, you get the idea) on my babies!’
‘Postnatal’ recovery… how long does the ‘postnatal’ (or postpartum if you’re reading this in the middle of my night) bit last?
Well in my experience (& my clients’), a correctly prescribed postnatal exercise programme will put your body back to where you want to be within a year of having your baby, including tackling the mummy tummy.
BUT… funnily enough… most women don’t actually have the guidance (or possibly the inclination) to really commit to a ‘correctly prescribed postnatal exercise programme’ for the 12 months after their little miracle arrives.
(Can’t imagine why… anyone would think that first year was hard work, or tiring, or utterly overwhelming or something)
Anyway, point is, most don’t. Which means, that unless you are blessed with REALLY annoying (for the rest of us) genes, then that mummy tummy is going to be obscuring the waistband of your jeans for some months or years to come.
I have good news though! It’s never to late to start knocking those wobbly bits back into shape.
I can already hear your ‘I’m the exception to the rule!’ cries: ‘but my stomach muscles split!’ / ‘I’ve had 3 c-sections’ / ‘big bones’ or ‘my mother never lost hers either’.
Honest. Something can be done dear fellow knackered mum. Something CAN be done.
I’ve had mums at my Mummy Tummy Masterclass who are really VERY postnatal (17 years… beat that anyone?), & who are benefitting now from learning how to engage their transverse abdominal muscles, knit those abs back together again, & then lose the fat that would have covered up all their hard work.
So the answer to ‘how long is my postnatal tummy actually postnatal?’
Until either your fairy godmother waves the washboard abs wand, or you give it some help.
If you can get to London for the MuTu Masterclass , a whole world of strong mid sections, no back ache & bikini’s could be waiting for you!!
Hello, I'm Wendy Powell, Founder of No More Excuses, creator of the 
I’m coming up for my 12th year of postnatal tummy. Does the antedote involve working up a sweat? I’m allergic to effort (which explains everything!)
Hi Alice, I hope you make your 12 year old feel sufficiently guilty on a daily basis for causing your distress!
Yes & no is the answer… the Masterclass itself: no sweat at all. Just 2 hours in the comfort of yours or a friend’s house (you can even drink wine if you want!) while I impart the knowledge you need, demonstrate my (non-sweaty) secret moves which really do WORK, do a (fully clothed) test on each of you to establish your own personal muscle split & prescribe what each of you need to do about it.
You’ll need to put down the wine glass for the test & to try out a few moves for yourself, but it’s NOT an exercise class. In fact you’ll gain more insight into how to eliminate a postnatal tummy in those 2 hours than you’d get from 20 classes!
The bad news, is that there could be some extra fat sitting on top of those muscles… & THAT might require some sweat on your part to get rid of. But I’ll tell you what to do about that too – I have devised 15-minute targetted workouts for mums to do on their own, having found that hour-long ones don’t tend get done…!