Although some women find they have a ‘blooming’ time during pregnancy, others aren’t quite so lucky and it’s not unusual at all to experience aches and pains.
Our Osteopath Sian Trayling, explains what is happening to your body and treatments that can help. All our practitioners are highly qualified and will use only safe, evidenced based methods to help you during your pregnancy.
First Trimester
Problems that commonly occur during the first trimester are:
- Morning sickness
- Low back / hip / pelvic pain
These are discussed in more detail below:
Morning sickness
Morning sickness results because your body’s hormonal balance is disrupted and can range from feeling slightly nauseous to quite severe sickness.
How we can help morning sickness
We can provide acupuncture at specific points which can help to ease the queasiness and help you to live day to day and eat a healthy nutritious diet. Acupuncture on these specific points have been proven by medical studies to be safe.
If you don’t fancy the idea of needles, we do have other non-invasive methods that can help.
Lower back / hip / pelvic pain
A hormone known as ‘Relaxin’ is released which makes your ligaments more supple to allow the body to adapt to it’s changing shape and to allow the pelvis to mobilise itself ready for giving birth.
This hormone release peaks at week 14 of your pregnancy and then again in the final few weeks.
As the ligaments being more supple, they are less able to hold your joints in the position they are used to, and so your muscles have to work harder to go about everyday activities such as sitting, standing and walking.
As the muscles have to work harder than they have been used to, they can begin to ache.
Many women find therefore, that they have aches and pains before any bump is showing due to these changes.
How we can help with aches and pains in the first trimester?
The first trimester is a special period, and we will keep treatments subtle, gentle and methods to keep you and your baby safe.
We can help to diffuse the aches and pains by giving you some TLC with massage and soft tissue techniques.
Later stages of 2nd trimester and 3rd trimester?
As your bump develops and your breast tissue grows, your whole body is adapting to the frontal weight load it is experiencing, your spinal curve will become more exaggerated and there will be increased pressure on the pelvis which supports this shape.
These changes happen in an extremely short space of time, and so your muscles have to try and adapt very quickly as they are made to work differently and are pushed into positions they are not used to being in.
Some women will therefore suffer with:
- mid and low back pain
- pelvic pain
- Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD)
These are discussed in further detail below.
How to help with aches and pains / Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction
You may find that putting a pillow between your knees when sleeping on your side helps with some of the pelvic and hip pain you may experience as it will help keep them aligned overnight. A specialist belt or support may also help you day to day.
Treatment options are always safe to you and your baby, and we aim to give you a bit of TLC and help by working with gentle techniques in the soft tissue and using massage to help diffuse the pain.
I won’t be looking to make radical changes to your posture as it is going through a natural process and once your bundle of joy has been born, the body should adapt back into it’s usual position.
Some women may need a little more help with their pain, and I will sometimes work together with our Physiotherapists who will also use effective and safe measures, which can include electrotherapy for pain relief, strapping and taping to help support your posture, mobilisation techniques as well as specific exercises and stretches to help with your individual condition.
As a clinic we also offer one-to-one pilates and a pilates class which is a nice gentle exercise to help keep your body toned and flexible ready for the birth and to additionally help diffuse any aches and pains.
We are looking to provide high level care to you, as we have an in depth knowledge of the human body, safety considerations, and will help you to manage your pain whilst your body is in this transition to having a child.
Acid Reflux
As your baby grows so does the space that he / she starts to take up in your abdomen. The body adapts to this by raising the sheet of muscle that lies between your stomach and your lungs which can constrict the gullet as it passes through it and result in the repetition of acid.
You can take antacid medications, and try and modify your diet by simple measures such as replacing raw tomatoes with steamed tomatoes.
Adjusting your posture slightly by trying to stay upright when eating can also help. If you don’t want to take medication or would like a bit of extra help, I can help by using Osteopathy techniques to stretch through this muscle, which can help with the symptoms.
If you would like any further advice about pregnancy related issues or would like us to help you during this special time please contact our friendly team of Chartered Physiotherapists.