Pain In Pregnancy
Caring For Expectant Mums
Pregnancies are, unsurprisingly, a time of massive change for your body.
These can be physical changes, like your uterus enlarging as your baby grows, or physiological changes, like hormone levels changing, your heart rate and total blood volume going up, or your blood sugar increasing.
They are very much inter-related.
Using the above example, expanding uterus (and baby!) displace and squish all the other abdominal organs to the back and sides, which is hardly conducive to rapid and efficient digestion. Increased levels of a hormone called progesterone also relax the intestines, which compounds the problem.
These can be physical changes, like your uterus enlarging as your baby grows, or physiological changes, like hormone levels changing, your heart rate and total blood volume going up, or your blood sugar increasing.
They are very much inter-related.
Using the above example, expanding uterus (and baby!) displace and squish all the other abdominal organs to the back and sides, which is hardly conducive to rapid and efficient digestion. Increased levels of a hormone called progesterone also relax the intestines, which compounds the problem.
Likewise, the biomechanical changes in your spine, ribs, pelvis etc. as the baby grows put pressure on all sorts of new areas that are not used to it, while the appropriately-named relaxin (a hormone that, you guessed it, relaxes your ligaments so that the pelvis can accommodate the baby's head during childbirth) means that you get less support from the joints, so the muscles have to work harder; leaving both more vulnerable to insult and injury.
In my blog post about pain and pregnancy, I go into some of the evolutionary and biomechanical factors that play a role in these issues.
While these biomechanical (and other) changes are a fact of pregnancy, they are not something that should automatically create discomfort or pain.
Anything your osteopath can do that will help adaptation to and compensation for these factors - the changing volume of the uterus and the body cavities that surround it, shifts in centre of gravity, related shifts in gait (how you walk) and other movement patterns - will help to reduce strain on the expecting mother and developing foetus.
Ensuring that your spine, pelvic and shoulder girdles etc. are flexible and strong will help your body adapt to the changing forces that act on it throughout pregnancy.
Easing areas of increased tension and mobilising restrictions will also improve your body's ability to compensate for these changes, resulting in less strain on the musculoskeletal system, particularly in the back and pelvic region where the greatest changes take place.
Treatment of expectant mothers is gentle and safe; and while nothing can ensure your whole pregnancy is discomfort-free, we are here and ready to help with those aspects of it that are amenable to manual therapy.
Anything your osteopath can do that will help adaptation to and compensation for these factors - the changing volume of the uterus and the body cavities that surround it, shifts in centre of gravity, related shifts in gait (how you walk) and other movement patterns - will help to reduce strain on the expecting mother and developing foetus.
Ensuring that your spine, pelvic and shoulder girdles etc. are flexible and strong will help your body adapt to the changing forces that act on it throughout pregnancy.
Easing areas of increased tension and mobilising restrictions will also improve your body's ability to compensate for these changes, resulting in less strain on the musculoskeletal system, particularly in the back and pelvic region where the greatest changes take place.
Treatment of expectant mothers is gentle and safe; and while nothing can ensure your whole pregnancy is discomfort-free, we are here and ready to help with those aspects of it that are amenable to manual therapy.
Pain After Pregnancy
For an unlucky portion of new mums, the aches and pains of pregnancy will continue on after birth. Refer to my series of blog posts for specific information about pain immediately after childbirth; postpartum shoulder pain, neck pain and midback issues; and postpartum low back and pelvic pain.