Health insurer refuses to help woman seriously disfigured in pregnancy
Annet Schriemer (34) suffers from distasis recti, which basically means that five years after the birth of her last child, she still looks very pregnant. Her only way out is a tummy tuck, but her health insurer will not cover it, the Telegraaf reports.
Shortly after the birth of her son over five years ago, Annet realized that she still looked like she had a pregnant belly. "Everybody said that I should not worry about it, I just gve birth to a big son. Still, I knew immediately that it was not right." A few weeks after childbirth, Annet still looked pregnant and she decided to investigate.
Annet quickly came across the term rectus diastasis. "This implies that the abdominal muscles are so severely damaged or torn during pregnancy, that they are no longer able to return to the old form, so your belly does not disappear." she explained to the newspaper. "A pregnant belly is beautiful, but not if you already gave birth months ago. Can you imagine walking around with such a huge belly for the rest of your life?! I could not even get normal clothes."
The only option for Annet is a tummy tuck, but her health insurer already rejected her application for this cosmetic procedure three times. "I fall outside all the rules, I have no loose skin, did not lose a lot of weight and have no blemishes."
