KEY POINTS:
Due to hormonal changes of pregnancy, the increasing weight of your growing baby and pressure on your hips and skeleton, you might experience some pain or discomfort in your bones or joints.
Commonly in the lower back, pelvic girdle, in joints and muscles and in the hands and wrists
Symptoms can present in a number of ways, you might experience weakness or numbness in your back, pelvis, hips, shoulders or even your wrists, hands or fingers. Your muscles may feel tight, tired or weak causing pain in the area. Symptoms can vary in severity from mild to severe and having an impact on how easily you can move around and sometimes how you walk.
Your core strength may be weakened by the pregnancy and this might make otherwise simple movements more difficult, such as getting out of bed, out of a chair or getting out of the car.
You might feel pain around your pelvic, lower back or hip area – this can be called ‘pelvic girdle pain’. If you can feel pain right in the middle at the front of your pelvis that may be made worse by movements that separate your legs such as getting out of bed or the car.
Your pelvic floor muscles may be affected by the weight of the baby causing you to feel pain or incontinence problems [both urinary and/or faecal]. This might happen before or after the pregnancy.
Try to avoid lots of walking, lying flat, getting in and out of bed without care, doing too much exercise or heavy lifting, deep squats or going up and down stairs.
For some relief, don’t overdo things, try not to ignore the pain, walk less, do less things such as heavy lifting or over exerting yourself, keep your knees together in bed and sleep on your side.
Talk to your midwife or doctor if your symptoms are bothering you.
