Pregnancy

Low Back Pain and Pregnancy

Research has proven that approximately 80% of pregnant women suffer from back pain during any stage of their pregnancy. Back pain varies from woman to woman, although the causes have not been entirely understood so it is hard for physicians to provide a safe medication to relieve the pain and discomfort.

However, there are treatment options which are able to improve back pain and even make it disappear temporary or permanently. In the early stage of pregnancy, low back pain is associated to women's shifting center of gravity and changes caused by hormones preparing you for labor and delivery by loosening up those ligaments attaching the pelvic bones to the spine.

Persistent backache may occur after walking or bending, but also standing up for long periods of time, which is not beneficial for your overall blood circulation either, although the pain rarely occurs below the knees.

Pain may be influenced by posture associated with backache in pregnancy, because of the push upwards while your uterus grows, weakening your abdominal muscles, changing your posture involuntarily, and adding strain on your back.

Approximately another 80% of women who are pregnant have localized low back pain, but the backache is different for all of them. The only factor of coincidence is that any low back pain developed during pregnancy is a long-term pain, except in a very few rare cases.

During the third trimester, only 50% of those women keep experiencing back pain. After giving birth, low back pain symptoms decrease dramatically to 9% in mothers who will suffer from sacral, lumbosacral, lumbar, cervicothoracic, and remaining areas within the next 3 weeks of delivery.

Frequency of low back pain is 90% in pregnant women versus 20% in those non-pregnant for the same period of time. Preponderance of pain can be slightly higher in women with higher body mass, having one or more previous pregnancies, as well as in women with previous history of pain during pregnancy.

Age is another risk factor. Research has shown that older women have less low back pain than younger, whose pain is more intense in comparison, describing it as a handicap, disabling and restricting their activity.

Alleviate low back pain during pregnancy is possible by avoiding excessive weight gain, maintaining correct posture, and exercising to strengthen the back muscles. Massages, appropriate rest, exercise and wearing comfortable shoes instead of high heels or a prescribed pelvic belt may relieve the pain.

If you are pregnant avoid standing, walking or driving for more than 30 minutes, and do no carry full bags of groceries or laundry. Intensive activities such as intercourse, climbing stairs or bending forward can trigger the low back pain, the same as standing on one leg, turning over in bed, or stepping in or out of bed.