So you’re pregnant, getting a little bigger, and can feel that little soon-to-be bundle of joy starting to move about inside of you (or maybe not quite yet). You’re glowing, radiant, blooming into the textbook expectant mother you’ve always wanted to be! Which means you also are feeling bloated, heavy, your feet are swollen, your back is sore, your plantar fasciitis is playing up, you can’t even look sideways at a piece of meat, your bladder is a problem, you can’t sit down without pain in your bum, and you can’t wait until this whole ordeal is finally over!
OK so maybe that’s a little dramatic, but I’m sure you can appreciate it when I say that having a pregnant body is not all wine and roses (nor is it soft cheeses, soft-boiled eggs, cold meats or salad bars). Now I’ve not had the pleasure of being pregnant myself, but I had to put up with my pregnant wife a couple of years back, and I see plenty of pregnant clients as a physio, so I feel sufficiently qualified to discuss this topic here. My wife will kill me, by the way, if she sees this, so I might get somebody else to do my proof reading this time around!
The pregnant body is one that no longer cares solely about itself, but now also about the little stowaway you’ll be carting around throughout the next 9 or so months. Your centre of gravity changes as you get bigger, meaning that your muscles need to work differently to support your changed posture, your muscles become stretched and pushed out of the way, and become less effective as a result. Your bladder gets squished by baby’s head or elbow or rear end, and in combination with stretched and stressed pelvic floor muscles, running (or waddling) to the toilet becomes a frequent occurrence.
In the later stages, the hormone relaxin floods through your body to give the baby an easier path through your pelvis, but it also gives your tendons and ligaments a harder time functioning correctly. There are other issues such as carpal or tarsal tunnel syndrome, which can be the result of increased blood volume during pregnancy, as well as other nerve-related conditions such as meralgia parasthetica, which causes numbness and pain in the thighs. These are some of the more commonly seen musculoskeletal issues seen with the expectant mothers’ body, though there are other possible issues as well.
The good news is 2-fold: usually, hands-on physiotherapy or massage treatments can help relieve the symptoms of many of these conditions, and, your condition will likely resolve itself once you have your baby and your body returns to some semblance of normalcy. From then on, it’s just the sleepless nights, messy house, unholy smells, gross bodily fluids, stress, and neck and back pain from feeding positions (see your physio!), along with other stuff to deal with, but I’m sure you’ll be fine with all of that! Oh, and you’ll also experience the more positive aspects of having a baby, such as the overwhelming cuteness, the joy at reaching all the developmental milestones etc.
So call 8289 2800 to come and see your LifeForce therapist in Golden Grove for help with your pre- and post-baby issues, just don’t expect help with the dirty nappies!
REFERENCES
Riahi, H. et al., (2017). Pelvic Musculoskeletal Disorders Related to Pregnancy. Journal of the Belgian Society of Radiology. 101(S2), p.2
Thabah, M. and Ravindran, V. (2014). Musculoskeletal problems in pregnancy. Rheumatology International, 35(4), pp.581-587.
