Back Pain During Pregnancy

Relaxin (the most talked about hormone during pregnancy) peaks during the end of your first trimester, which causes ligamental laxity, and the growing weight your body in the front increases the arch in your lower back, which places stresses in your back. Your core, postural and back muscles need to work harder to maintain optimal posture to prevent back pain.

• Are you experiencing ongoing aches and pain in your back?
• Is your back pain exacerbated currently during pregnancy?
• Are you having difficulty bending forwards, getting on/off of the chair or the floor, walking, rolling over in bed or ascending/descending stairs?

These are all very common complaints, but there is so much we can do for back pain to improve your pregnancy experience.

1. Not everyone has the same type of back pain. Thus, there is no one size fits all treatment for it. Womens health physiotherapist Aileen, who specializes in pregnancy assesses and differentiates between upper back pain, pelvic girdle pain and lower back pain, then treat it accordingly.
2. We also monitor and assess your tummy separation and would treat it as indicated.

Treatment: treatment often includes us doing stretching and some soft tissue work on your tight muscles.

Postural Education: we provide you with great education about posture and we might even use kinesiotape provide you with a gentle reminder. We also talk about the precautions and provide you with great advice on the dos and donts for the type of back pain that you might have.

Exercise: we prescribe you with specific and targeted core, glutes exercises, stretches that you could do at home, in your office to get you stronger with the goals of improving your back pain and to enable you to enjoy the rest of your pregnancy.