Featuring Tamarah Nerreter, MPT, CAFC
Back Pain in Pregnancy
Duration: 2 minutes, 9 seconds

Well back pain and pregnancy are very highly related. There is about a 50 to 70 percent incidence in pregnancy of low back pain.

A lot of women will generally grab here and find that that's where predominantly their back pain is. Now if there's a history of back pain previous to pregnancy or if there was back pain in a previous pregnancy, then that is highly indicative of them again having back pain through their recent or current pregnancy.

If the pain is continuous, then we generally see that it lasts into the postpartum phase. Causes of back pain in pregnancy or during pregnancy are of course the hormone relaxin that encompasses your body and changes a lot of the joint stability and muscles, and your change of your center of gravity.

So because of the baby weight out front, you're starting to lean forward a bit more, and you're trying to compensate, and therefore, you're starting to lean back. And that increases the lordosis in your lumbar spine, and therefore, creates more compression in the lumbar spine, and therefore, pain.

Another reason can be from malignment of the pelvis, or any pelvic pain issues can create or refer to the low back.

It's really important for the individual to have an assessment done on back pain to ensure that back pain during pregnancy is not radicular in nature, meaning that it runs down the leg, and that can potentially mean that there's a nerve compression or a disk bulge.

And this can also happen with pregnancy because of the decreased room through the abdominal region. Further abdominal support is compromised because the baby is growing, and so these are all issues that can be compiled and result in the back pain.

If a female is suffering from back pain during pregnancy, we would advise her to go see her care provider or local physiotherapist to address these issues.

Presenter: Tamarah Nerreter, Physiotherapist, Surrey, BC

Local Practitioners: Physiotherapist