How To Deal With Lower Back Pain During Pregnancy

Why Do Pregnant Women Get Backache

• Changes to your posture Your growing bump will gradually shift your center of gravity. Without realising you will adjust your posture which can put strain on your back and pelvis.

• Weight gain The weight that you gain during pregnancy will put extra pressure on your spine. Your baby will also put pressure on the nerves and blood vessels in your back.

• Stress When you suffer from emotional stress it can cause muscle tension in your back. This can cause pain in your back and also muscle spasms.

• Hormone changes The hormone that loosens the ligaments in the pelvic area in preparation for birth can also loosen the ligaments in your back. This can lead to back pain and cause your spine to be unstable.

• As your uterus gets bigger your abdominal muscles may separate to allow for expansion. This can cause some back pain.

Treatment For Early Back Pain During Pregnancy

No matter what stage of your pregnancy youre in, there are ways to treat back pain. You probably wont be able to prevent it completely, but you can help to minimize the pain.

Follow these tips for reducing back pain throughout your pregnancy.

If your back pain seems to be linked to your stress levels, things like meditation, prenatal yoga, and extra rest can all be helpful ways to manage your stress levels.

Tips For Back Pain Relief At Home

There are plenty of ways you may be able to ease your pregnancy back pain without medical intervention. Heres where to start:

Pay attention to your posture. When you stand up, make sure with your shoulders held back. If you have to remain standing for an extended period, elevate one foot on a box or stool to relieve the pressure on your back. Try to avoid standing for too long, however, and remember to take regular breaks to get off your feet.

Speaking ofmaintain good posture when youre sitting down, too. Find ergonomic chairs both at home and at work that will support your back. You may want to purchase a small cushion or pillow to place behind your lower back, along with a stool or footrest for elevating your feet.

Dont lift anything too heavy, either, and avoid bending at the waist to hoist items up off the floor. Instead, you should squat, bend your knees, and lift with your legsand never with your back.

Exercise. may help prevent and ease back pain, in addition to all its other benefits. The best time to start is prior to conception. Simple exercises before you get pregnant to improve core strength will help a lot, as will being as close to a healthy weight as possible before pregnancy, which has the additional benefit of reducing pregnancy risks and cesarean delivery risk, Dr. Meyer says.

Yoga can be a safe, helpful form of exercise when you’re pregnant.

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Exercises To Ease Back Pain In Pregnancy

This gentle exercise helps to strengthen stomach muscles, which can ease back pain in pregnancy:

1) Start on all fours with knees under hips, hands under shoulders, fingers facing forwards and stomach muscles lifted to keep your back straight.

2) Pull in your stomach muscles and raise your back up towards the ceiling, letting your head and bum relax downwards gently do not let your elbows lock and only move your back as far as you comfortably can.

3) Hold for a few seconds then slowly return to the box position take care not to hollow your back, it should always return to a straight, neutral position.

4) Do this slowly and rhythmically 10 times, making your muscles work hard and moving your back carefully.

Doing prenatal yoga or aquanatal classes with a qualified instructor can also help build your muscles to better support your back. Ask at your local leisure centre.

Find The Proper Shoes

You may be a fashion maven who receives regular compliments on your maternity style, but if you’re wearing high-fashion shoes, you’re not doing your back any favors. “High heels increase the curvature of your back and create pressure” that drives the weight of your pregnancy directly into your lower spine and hip joints, Dr. Rosser says. You may also lose your balance and heels cause you to be less stable.

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But walking in flats isn’t the answer either, because they leave your feet, which tend to spread during pregnancy because of hormonal changes, unsupported. Poor foot position can manifest itself as imbalance and pain all the way up your legs and back. To get the best support-and to relieve the most pressure-Dr. Rosser advises a low-heeled shoe that is comfortable with either a built-in arch support or an orthotic insertion. The slight rise of the low heel will help distribute the weight that’s on your legs in a more stable and back-supportive way.

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Pregnancy Back Pain Relief And Prevention Ideas

Your doctor or midwife can give you personalised advice and may recommend pain relief or physical therapy, but these strategies might also help relieve the discomfort:

• Exercise. Regular physical activity helps to strengthen your back and abdominal muscles. It can also help improve your posture. Just make sure to get the green light from your doctor before starting a new exercise regimen. Prenatal yoga could be a good choice as could be exercising in water.

• Practice good posture when you stand and sit. Keep a straight posture and draw your belly in. Try to remember to tighten your tummy muscles even while sitting, standing and walking. If you sit a lot, it can help relieve the pain to choose a chair with good back support or use a cushion to support your lower back.

• Wear comfortable shoes. Wear low-heeled shoes to evenly distribute your weight.

• Sleep comfortably. A firm mattress gives your back extra support, and sleeping on your side with a pillow between your legs, behind your back, and under your tummy can also help.

• Be careful when you pick up objects. Avoid lifting anything heavy. To pick something off the ground bend your knees instead of bending over at the waist.

• Get plenty of rest. Take regular breathers to just have a sit down and relax, especially as your pregnancy progresses.

• Get a massage. You mind find a massage soothing and relaxing. A warm bath could also help relieve your achy back.

Precautious Tips For Exercises During Pregnancy

• After you are done with completing your first trimester, you are recommended to avoid exercises while lying on your back flat, as when you are in this position, the uterus puts heavy pressure on the vena cava. This vein takes the blood back to your heart. If the blood flow to the heart is disturbed, you start to feel dizzy and difficult breathing. Hence, avoid lying flat on your back for exercises after your first trimester.
• Kindly choose to exercise on an even surface to maintain balance and avoid any other body aches.
• To support the body and not to overburden the feet, wear supportive and safe shoes.
• Ensure to keep hydrating yourself even during the exercise. Drink water before starting the activity, during it, and after the workout.
• If you begin to feel exhausted, end the action, slow it down or take a short break.
• Do not overstretch and do every activity slowly and steadily.

Your body releases a hormone known as the Relaxin hormone during pregnancy, which relaxes your ligaments and the cervix during delivery. Stretch too much might tear out your ligaments as the relaxin hormone reduces the friction, loosens, and lubricates the joints and the ligaments of the pelvis.

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Exercise The Pain Away

Staying mobile can really help with back pain as it keeps your muscles from getting too tight, says Cynthia Rebong, a midwife at Midwifery Care North Don River Valley and a yoga and Pilates instructor. Some forms of phsycial activity can become uncomfortable during pregnancy, but Rebong recommends swimming as a pregnancy-friendly way to keep moving.

Can a maternity belt solve your pregnancy pains? Mickeler suggests focusing on your glutes when you exercise. We have this anterior shift in the pelvis, and now were tucking our butt under, so our butts getting really tight, and super, super weak, she explains. And weak glutes can wreak havoc with your lower back because they force other muscles, like your hip flexors, to do the work for them. Mickeler says exercises like squats, lunges, glute kickbacks or bridges can all help support your posture by strengthening not only your glutes but your back, hamstrings and calves, which will help prevent back pain.

If you already have low-back pain, manual osteopathic practitioner Riki Richter, co-owner of Synergy Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation in Toronto, recommends doing squats against a wall, which will give you support at the same time as minimizing that lower back bend. She also suggests cat pose, which will help keep that low-back area flexible. And if you have pain around the dimples in your low back, butt, hips or pubic bone, choose fitness classes that dont involve forward bending, as that can be painful, says Mickeler.

What Back Pain During Pregnancy Feels Like

Every mum-to-be experiences pain differently, so there’s no hard and fast rule. For some, the pain may be stronger during certain movements. For others, the pain can radiate down the legs. The pain can come on suddenly or it might present more slowly. The pain can also vary in intensity. Sometimes it can be tricky to pinpoint the exact site of the pain. For example, you might have trouble distinguishing back pain from soreness in your pelvis or hip.

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Book A Physical Therapy Appointment

Physical therapists, in addition to treating acute injuries, help pregnant women work through back pain by manipulating joints, muscles, and nerve pressure points and providing exercises that expectant moms can continue at home. Rick Olderman, M.S.P.T., a Denver-based physical therapist and the author of Fixing You: Back Pain During Pregnancy, says that one of his goals is to educate patients by “teaching them how to walk, sit, stand, bend forward, lie down, and exercise” in a healthy, back-supporting way.

One thing he does is placing tape on the backs of pregnant women’s knees to “remind them to unlock their knees,” a habit that can put pressure on the large muscles of the legs and hip joints and the back, he says. Because women’s joints become lax as a result of hormonal changes, Olderman also helps show women the importance of limiting their joints’ ranges of motion to about 75 percent. “It may feel good to stretch, but the tissue stress becomes greater,” he says, and can actually exacerbate pain. Some health insurance plans cover physical therapy, which is not always the case with other complementary therapies.

Dealing With The Stress Of Cramping And Lower Back Pain In Early Pregnancy

When many women find out theyre expecting a baby, the joy is something tremendous to behold. The fear of losing that baby, however, is another beast entirely.

Trying to deal with cramping and lower back pain in early pregnancy can be stressful. While its easy to tell yourself theres nothing to worry about, the constant fear of miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy can lead to extreme stress and anxiety.

During my own pregnancy, for example, I struggled endlessly with round ligament pains.

While Id spoken to my doctor about them and was calmed by their lack of concern, every time I experienced a pain that was worse or different from the others, the panic would settle back into my mind.

I began searching for ways to deal with the stress of cramping and lower back pain in early pregnancy.

Here were some of the options I landed on:

• I began taking walks for extra exercise and to keep my body moving.
• I reduced the number of extra responsibilities I had to allow more time for lounging around and relaxing.
• I read all of the important What to Expect pregnancy books, so I would have a better grasp of what was going on with my body.
• I started doing daily meditations and gentle pregnancy yoga.

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An Ounce Of Back Pain Prevention

If you already have back pain problems, pregnancy is likely to make them worse. So if pregnancy is in your near future, nows the time to plan, Dr. Stephens says.

Before you ditch birth control, consider taking up exercisesdesigned to strengthen your core, she says. And women who are overweight are athigher risk of back pain in pregnancy, so talk to your doctor about aweight-loss plan before trying to conceive. If youre already expecting, save theseprevention tips for your next pregnancy and keep reading for ways to getrelief this time around.

How To Avoid Or Ease Back Pain During Pregnancy

There are many things you can do to avoid or ease back pain during pregnancy.

Move with care and attention

During pregnancy, it can be easier to fall or hurt yourself. Use these tips to help you support yourself better and prevent back pain.

• Avoid lifting heavy objects. If you have to lift anything at all, avoid bending at the waist. Bend your knees with your heels close to your buttocks. Use your legs and not your back to lift the object.
• Move your feet when you have to turn to the side so you dont twist your spine.
• Split light shopping into two bags and carry one bag on each side so youre not straining either side too much.
• Avoid sitting or standing for long periods of time. Take breaks. If you have to stand a lot, keep one foot at a time on top of a stool or a box. This helps to take the pressure off your back.
• When youre standing, practice good posture to avoid straining your back. Stand with your back straight. Your stomach should not be leaning forward too much.

Pay attention to the way you sit, stand, sleep or walk at all times to prevent the risk of injury and help ease back pain.

Support yourself

Extra support can be helpful to prevent injury and prevent or ease back pain.

Take rest

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What Can You Do If The Lower Back Pain Persists

In case your lower back pain persists longer than usual, you may try one of these remedies. However, ensure you consult your gynaecologist beforehand to know if they are suitable for your current health condition.

• You can take your remedies a step further by resorting to acupuncture for pain relief.
• Specific physical therapy techniques can be long-term and reduce chronic back pain issues as well.
• Though there isnt convincing evidence related to pregnant women, chiropractors could also help set certain alignments right and reduce the back pain in your body.
• Certain waist belts called sacral belts are known to provide the support that some women need. However, these do not work for all, and some have reported increased pain on the usage of those.
• If the pain worsens, your doctor might prescribe certain medication thats safe during pregnancy.

Hot And Cold Compresses

To ease your back pain, you can try using a hot and cold compress on your back. Applying first hot and then cold compresses to the area that is sore, can lower the body temperature helping to constrict the blood vessels, reduce swelling and decrease inflammation in your muscles. However, make sure to consult a health professional such as your GP or midwife before trying this, because it is not safe to apply heat to certain parts of the body such as your abdomen whilst pregnant.

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Here Bodytonic Clinic Share Their Top 13 Ways That Women Can Alleviate The Symptoms Of Pregnancy

It is very common for pregnant women to experience back pain, especially during the early trimesters of their pregnancy. In fact, 50% of women will experience back pain during pregnancy, in some capacity. Unfortunately, back pain can be very irritating and uncomfortable to deal with, especially whilst managing your other pregnancy symptoms too. To help you through this time, Bodytonic Clinic has brought you their top tips for dealing with back pain through your pregnancy.

Strengthen Your Back Muscles

Since your back is at risk, it makes sense to strengthen it. Starting early in your pregnancy, engage in light weight-lifting exercises that can help to strengthen your lower back.

Some examples are:

• Deadlifts: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent. Using light weights or even none at all, bend at your waist and allow your hands to hang toward the floor. Keep your core and pelvic floor tight, and maintain full control as you bend down and come back up. Deadlifts are also used by serious weightlifting competitors and are often done with heavy weights. If you are pregnant, remember to use light weights to avoid injury it doesnt take much to strengthen your lower back. Youre just trying to avoid back pain not win a weightlifting competition!
• Arm and leg lifts: Get on all fours on the floor. Slowly extend one leg back and then up, maintaining full control the whole time. If you are able, lift the opposite arm and point it straight out. However, if you feel uncomfortable or if you are not able to maintain your balance, omit the arms or do them separately.

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