During pregnancy your body changes to adapt to your growing baby. These changes happen fast and you can experience pain and discomfort in your pelvic and lower back area.
Hannah’s story
Hannah came to me here at Sundial during her 4th month of pregnancy because she was experiencing pelvic pain for few weeks and the intensity of pain was increasing with time. She was also suffering with pubic pain for the last few days.
She would feel more pain turning in bed, walking and going up or down stairs. Being a nurse Hannah needed to be on her feet most of the day and she desperately needed relief.
After an examination I explained to Hannah that she was experiencing pain because of a sacroiliac dysfunction, a lack of movement in the joint of the pelvis.
These types of pain are very common during pregnancy. In fact 20% of pregnant women suffer with pelvic pain and 50 to 85% with low back pain. This is mainly due to the hormonal changes during pregnancy as your body starts to produce relaxin, the hormone that relaxes your ligaments in order to increase the space for your baby and birth. Also mechanical changes occur as the pregnancy goes along. As your tummy gets bigger the curve of your lower back increases and creates pressure on your back joints and muscles too.
We started working on this sacroiliac dysfunction using very gentle techniques to free up the joints and also working on the ligaments and muscles of the pelvis with gentle pressure. I also gave Hannah stretches and exercises to stabilise her core muscles and pelvis at home.
I saw Hannah regularly throughout her pregnancy in order to maintain the right sort of movement in her pelvis and, fortunately, she didn’t experience pelvic pain anymore!