Pregnancy and Lower Back Pain

Think back to that special day when you first found out you were pregnant. That was an exciting time that began a whole new planning phase of your life.  You began thinking about what bedroom would become the nursery and what color you would paint it.  Then there are the baby showers, diapers, cribs to buy, shopping for cute clothing…all of the excitement and anticipation of the new arrival.

Unfortunately, those wonderful thoughts begin to slowly wane as your pregnancy progresses and that new life gets heavier and heavier and begins to put additional stress on your own body. Your quality of life begins to suffer and day to day activities become more challenging as lower back pain quickly becomes a daily occurrence.

Pregnancy and lower back pain often go hand in hand. It isn’t hard to figure out why pregnant women experience low back pain.  As the baby grows and gets heavier, the weight begins to pull the mother’s body forward forcing her to continually pull her upper body backwards to compensate. This means that as long as she is standing in this upright position, the muscles of the lower back are continually engaged. This puts tremendous strain on the lower back and pelvis.

Logically it would sound like that is the single reason for the pregnancy lower back pain. However, there is also a hidden cause for this new found back pain.  Muscle imbalances are a common cause for pregnancy lower back pain. Not only that, it is also the cause of lower back pain in the majority of the people that experience this pain.

The problem is that muscle imbalances are rarely discussed by the medical community that usually attempts to treat the lower back pain.  Health care professionals tend to zero in on the specifics of the pain and not what caused the pain in the first place.  Here is a common story. A person begins to experience low back pain and visits their doctor. The doctor may order an MRI. The MRI reveals a herniated disc. The doctor prescribes pain killers to mask the pain until the problem can be resolved.  They will usually then send you to physical therapy or possibly a steroidal injection.  In extreme cases they may even suggest surgery. But what caused the herniated disc in the first place. More often than not, the doctor will not ask the difficult questions as to what may have cause it and the patient doesn’t know enough about what to ask so they go along for the ride.  If they are lucky, the physical therapy may eventually provide some relief but chances are that it is only a matter of time until the low back pain comes back again and it could be worse this time around.

Muscles work together in a delicate balance to allow the body to move fluidly.  One muscle stretches while another shortens. Each muscle needs to be of equal size and strength. When a pregnant woman moves in any way, she will do so in an unbalanced manner or in a way that is different than she used to in order to compensate for her additional body weight.  She will sit, stand and lay in different positions in order to find comfort. Each of these new, awkward movements will create muscle imbalances which will pull the low back and pelvis out of proper alignment.  Unfortunately the pain will only become worse as the pregnancy progresses if the imbalances are not addressed.

You need to gain a better understanding of what muscle imbalances you have that may be causing your pain.  At that point you can begin structuring the right combination of stretching, exercise and treatments to get you back into proper alignment again. You can learn more about how to identify and address your muscle imbalances by visiting LoseTheBackPain.com.