Back pain is one of the inevitable problems during pregnancy. Medical data reveals that more than eighty percent of women undergo back pain at one time or another during pregnancy. This back pain in pregnancy could range from mild or severe to chronic back pain. Most of these back pains during pregnancy could be distracting but are not harmful in themselves, since pregnancy itself is the main cause for these back pains. Only those back pains that are extraneous to pregnancy have to be addressed properly. However, certain back pains that warrant surgical treatments have to be handled carefully during the tenure of pregnancy.
Lower back pains are induced during pregnancy due to the following reasons. During pregnancy, the production level of hormones is much higher, resulting in lesser stability in pelvis joints. The pelvis has to become flexible to allow the baby to grow. This increase in the joints' instability could result in back pain.
The woman typically gains around 25 to 35 pounds of extra weight during pregnancy, most of which is around the abdomen and the back. This puts the lower back muscles to higher stress and strain, leading to lower back pain in early pregnancy. Further, the increase in weight results in a shift in the center of gravity of the body. Sitting and standing postures get altered and back pain possibility is heightened.
During the first trimester of pregnancy, which is the first 3 months, the woman is advised not to strain too much but to take adequate rest. The incidence of back pain in this period would only become more acute, if there is total inactivity. Hence, it is advisable that mild stretching and walking exercises are undertaken during the early period of pregnancy to ease back pain.
The second pregnancy trimester or the next 3 months could be utilized to strengthen the abdominal muscles, the back muscles, pelvic floor, buttock, and thigh muscles by moderate exercises. This is the period when the woman is full of energy and it has to be fully utilized. Proper exercising and correct dieting would ward off back pains or eliminate them faster if they occur during this period.
The exercises recommended to alleviate back pain during pregnancy are as follows. Pelvic tilts for abdominal muscles, arm and leg raises for back muscles and buttock, and kegels for pelvic floor muscles, are the exercises advocated for strengthening the respective muscles for removing or keeping away back pain during pregnancy. Stretching exercises like backstretch, hamstring stretch, chest stretch, and neck stretch, as well as wall squats for abdominal muscles, buttock muscles and thigh muscles are the other exercises recommended during pregnancy.
However, these exercises should not be done without consulting the physician. Depending on the body condition of the pregnant woman, the doctor would select the right exercises that are suitable for that particular woman. If they are practiced in accordance with the instruction of the doctor, lower back pains during pregnancy could be avoided or removed completely. Medication during pregnancy has to be taken under the strict supervision of the physician. Alcohol intake and smoking have to be totally given up or kept to the minimum at the least. Do-it-yourself medication and exercises could result in irreparable harm to the would-be-mother and child.
There are exercises recommended to alleviate back pain during pregnancy