In our last blog, we discussed the safety of visiting a chiropractor while being pregnant. Now it’s time to discuss some of the most common conditions during pregnancy and how a visit to your chiropractor can help. Women’s bodies are designed to move and grow with the baby they’re carrying. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a pleasant or painless experience. It can be an uncomfortable period with lower back pain, sciatic nerve pain, etc., especially in the third trimester when the baby gains its weight. It’s even more uncomfortable with twins or even triplets. Here are five pregnancy conditions that your chiropractic can help relieve.
• Lower Back Pain: Lower back pain is the biggest complaint during pregnancy. As the baby grows, your center of gravity shifts. The focus is on the front where the baby is growing. As they get bigger, the lumbar spine is getting more stress and pain. The pain can range from person to person. It’s also common to experience lower back pain postpartum as your body heals itself from the pregnancy.
• Sciatic Nerve Pain: Sciatic nerve pain and pregnancy are linked quite often. Not every pregnancy will result in this pain, but it’s pretty common. It results from the sciatic nerve being compressed or irritated by the gluteal muscles and the deep external rotators. It’s lower back pain with pain radiating down your legs because the nerve is being pinched or compressed.
• Sacroiliac Pain: If you’re experiencing hip pain during your pregnancy, there’s a chance it’s sacroiliac pain. With the extra hormones being produced during the pregnancy, your ligament laxity can be affected. This means that stable joints like the sacroiliac joint can shift slightly instead of remaining stationary. It puts extra stress on the muscles and ligaments surrounding this joint.
• Pubic Symphysis Pain: Similar to the sacroiliac joint, hormones can also affect the pubic symphysis joint. The ligaments that help stabilize this joint relax to the point where they can separate and move. It can be extremely painful and hard to move.
• Round Ligament Pain: The abdomen is also affected during pregnancy with side pain. Round ligaments connect to the anterolateral abdominal wall. As the uterus grows with the baby, those ligaments will be stretched out, resulting in sharp pain in the abdomen.