Evaluation for Restoration of the Puerpera's Rectus Abdominis Using the Surface Electromyographic Activity

Abstract

This research evaluated a restoration process of muscular activity of rectus abdominis in the puerperal period by measuring surface electromyographic activity, and investigated the relation with the state of childbirth. Twenty nine primipara women (age : 29.0±2.9 years, height : 158.7±4.7 cm, body mass : 49.9±4.2 kg) participated in this study. The number of measurement for each woman was ten times. The first measurement period was between 15 weeks and 25 weeks of gestation. Follow-on measurements were made every days during 5 days after delivery, and then at the 2 nd week, 1 st month, 2 nd month and 3 rd month. The surface electromyographic signals were recorded from the upper right portion rectus abdominis the subject was in an abdominal curl position. The recorded data were first rectified, and then calculated for 200 ms continuously using the trapezium rule, and finally standardized with averaged value of each woman's data. The results of this study indicate that it takes two months to restore muscular activity in the rectus abdominal muscle from delivery. This result should help set the expectations and reduce the uneasiness associated with postpartum body image. A remarkable negative correlation was observed between the amount of intrapartum hemorrhage and muscular activity of the rectus abdominal muscle (r= -0.424). This result provides women during the postpartum period with health guidance according to amount of intrapartum hemorrhage. Moreover, the breastfeeding women had significantly more powerful abdominal muscles than the others at the 1 st month postpartum (p<0.05), this result can be recommended as one of the advantages of breastfeeding.