Pregnancy and Back Pain

From the start of your pregnancy to the end, your body will have changed monumentally. Not only in how it looks but also the chemical and hormonal changes. There is no surprise that pain and discomfort is often felt during this time. The most of common is lower back pain, hip and pelvis pain.

What happens?

Hormonal Changes

Estrogen and progesterone levels rise throughout your pregnancy for a variety of reasons. Progesterone causes laxity or loosening to your ligaments. Ligaments are tough elastic tissue that connect bone to bone, they support joints and limit movement. Increased laxity ready’s the pelvis for expanding during labour. While this is essential it means that prior to birth your muscles are helping your ligaments to stabilise your joints. This extra work for your joints can cause a dull continuous ache causing hip and back pain.

Lower Back Pain

The weight of your baby is held anteriorly. As they rapidly grow through the 42 weeks your body has to keep up. The weight is tipping your body forwards, and will increase the lumbar spine curvature. This puts strain on the local ligaments, discs and muscles. To help stabilise this the muscles surrounding your lower back will contract. This tightness can create a general band like ache across your lower back and in to the lateral hips.  

Sciatic pain can occur during pregnancy and can be incredible painful. The sciatic nerve branches from the lower back through the buttocks and down the back of the leg. When this nerve is compressed back pain can be experienced, as well as pain travelling partly or fully down the nerve. Pain can be mild or can be felt as a burning sharp sensation. Compression can occur as it exists the spine due to a bulging disc. The increased curvature of the lumbar spine puts posterior pressure on the disc squeezing it into the space the nerve occupies. Another location that can compress the sciatic nerve is in the buttocks. The nerve travels through the piriformis muscles, which is a small muscle which is underneath the glutes. The piriformis works very hard to stabilise the hip. As this muscles gets tighter or goes into spasm it can restrict the nerve running through it. This leads to localised pain or pain that travels down the back of your leg.

Pelvic Pain

The sacroiliac joints connect the spine to the pelvis, they have a network of ligaments supporting them. The pelvis is a bowl, when there is dysfunction in one location it will have an impact on another part. This imbalance can be felt at the location of the sacroiliac joints but also at the front in the pubic symphysis. To try and right the pelvis’s position muscles contract and can pull around and within the pelvis. This can lead to pain in this region as well as in the groin and down the inside of your thigh.

What to do

While a degree of discomfort is expected during pregnancy. If you experience sharp pains, cramping or persistent high levels of pain you should see your GP.

During an Osteopathy appointment a thorough case history and examination will allow for a working diagnosis. This will give you the reassurance of what is causing your pain, as well as a treatment plan.

Gentle stretching helps the muscles relax, as well as increasing blood flow to the area which keeps the muscles subtle. This is commonly prescribed to pregnant patients. Specific stretches and techniques will always be shown during a consultation ensuring you are doing them correctly.

Tailored lifestyle changes may be recommended to help reduce the levels of pain you are experiencing. This will aid Osteopathic treatment you will receive during your appointment.