Pregnancy Related Pain

When you are pregnant, your body goes through many changes in order to accommodate and nourish the life you are growing inside you. It is perfectly normal, therefore, to experience aches and pains as part of this process.

Whether it be pain during pregnancy, or post pregnancy pain, chiropractic has been proven to offer significant relief to patients.

By seeing a chiropractor during pregnancy, you lessen the chances of aches and pains turning into more permanent or long-lasting problems. For example, we will help you to understand how to engage your core muscles to maintain maximum strength in your body and avoid potential future problems such as incontinence in later life. Engaging your core goes much further than the ‘belly-button to back’ technique you may have learnt at exercise classes.

Undertaking a course of treatment to manage any problems could also contribute towards an intervention-free birth.

Often, ladies who suffer from pelvic girdle dysfunction are more likely to end up needing assistance to have a natural birth so, if this is something that is important to you, please do come along and see us and we can work out the best treatment for you. Further, keeping regular appointments can also help align the pelvis for an easier delivery. However, if you have a high-risk pregnancy or experience severe pain, it is always a good idea to double-check with your medical doctor before scheduling a chiropractic appointment.

Treatment of post-partum mothers is important to assess any structural changes that may have occurred during labour, and/or delivery. The increase of hormones during pregnancy softens the ligaments of the body and can frequently lead to spinal misalignment. After childbirth, the hormonal system will gradually return to its pre-pregnant state over the space of a few weeks. During this period of time, the ligaments are still loose and the spine can easily be misaligned. Birth, lifting a baby in and out of a cot and even breast feeding can cause such misalignments and pain.

Pain and discomfort after childbirth among women is very common, but studies show that up to 20% of women can have persistent pain for 2-3 years. Symptoms can include low back pain, shooting pain in the pelvis, radiating pain (into lower abdomen, back, groin, thigh and/or leg) and pain with movement. Receiving post pregnancy chiropractic treatment will help smoothen and accelerate patient’s recovery to optimal health.

How Can A Chiropractor Help Me With Pregnancy Related Pain?

As part of the natural process of preparing for birth, your body does several things.
Firstly, it secretes hormones (including relaxin) that serve to relax your muscles and ligaments to prepare your body for the birthing process.
Secondly, many of your bone structures, such as your rib cage physically move to create more space. This, in turn, alters your posture which, coupled with the inevitable weight gain, puts many parts of your body under pressure. It is this additional pressure which, especially for those who are predisposed, will cause sciatica during pregnancy.
Additionally, our ligaments hold our bones together so the effects of relaxin can also let joints move around and become painful. Your body also has to cope with an increased volume of blood during your pregnancy, which can lead to complaints such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

We treat any of the following:
> Pelvic pain
> Lower back pain
> Hip pain
> Rib pain (front and back)
> Back pain, mainly felt as sciatica
> Sciatica
> Carpal tunnel syndrome
> Headaches
> Coccyx pain

Pregnancy Related Pain Treatment

Treatment will vary depending on the cause of your pain. Chiropractors have many methods available, including:

> Chiropractic Adjustments

> DaBaoZha Adjustment
> Percussion Therapy
> Muscle release techniques
> Trigger point therapy (which is a technique for getting a frozen muscle to release itself)

> Identification of related injuries or inflammation

> Advice for avoiding future problems

> Long and short term treatment plans

A chiropractor will also include advice and guidance on lifestyle changes and will incorporate strengthening exercises and stretching into your treatment sessions.

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Interesting Facts About Pregnancy Related Pain

Pregnancy related lower back pain is common in 60-70% of pregnancies

It’s normal to gain 11-15kg during pregnancy, this increase in weight changes the force going through joints, it changes the centre of gravity of your body, forcing you into an anterior pelvic tilt

It is classed as pain between 12th rib and the gluteal folds/pubic symphysis, to the knee and calf but not to the foot

Hyperlordosis (due to the forward tilt of the pelvis) causes more stress on intervertebral discs, ligaments and facet joints, creating joint inflammation

Pregnancy pain is often referred to as pregnancy related pelvic girdle pain

Abdominal muscles are stretched and weakened with the added weight gain this can compress the lumbosacral plexus resulting in nerve pain

Its prevalence is highest during the third trimester

Due to the strain of childbirth, many women suffer from postpartum symptoms, such as urinary incontinence

Pain during pregnancy can be due to a combination of mechanical, hormonal, circulatory and psycho-social factors

Associated factors for pain during pregnancy are laborious work, history of lower back pain, inactivity or sedentary lifestyle

Pain during pregnancy has several possible reasons: changes in facet joints, muscles or ligaments – primarily due to relaxin, which can affect the stability of the spine