Sciatica with pregnancy

From marshallnews.com

Dear Coach Flabby,

I’m 7 months pregnant and I’ve developed a burning pain down the back of my leg. It feels better when I lie down but I don’ have time to lounge, I’ve got things to do. Any thoughts?

This week’s cliche is, An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure. What you are experiencing is not uncommon. It is a result of a growing and active baby combined with what happens to your body when you become pregnant.

As pregnancy begins and progresses your body releases a hormone that allow the ligaments supporting your pelvis to become pliable and more elastic so as to allow the baby to eventually exit through a normally rather narrow opening. This is good. The negative is that this hormone affects all the ligaments holding your joints together including your low back and pelvis. The result is an unstable base. When you have an unstable base the structures around it get pinched and pressed. Pinch or press a nerve on the right spot and you will send a burning pain down your leg.

Now think about a growing baby doing somersaults and practicing Kung-Fu while doing a headstand getting ready to break for daylight. If all that kicking and pushing hits the right spot, a nerve gets pinched or pressured and a burning pain shoots down your leg.

After checking with your Doctor, the treatment for the acute situation is applying gentle heat packs alternating with cold packs to stimulate blood flow to the area a few times a day. The reason it feels better to lie down is that gravity is reduced and the baby’s head pressing on a nerve is relieved. Also try warm bathes or a warm pool so you can float and relax.

That’s the passive part. The active part is that you really have to work on strengthening the muscles that stabilise the low back and pelvis. Do this; Lie on your back in bed with knees bent up comfortably. Put one hand under your low back. Now tuck your pelvis so your low back presses down on your hand. Hold that tight for a few seconds. Relax and then gently arch your back so your spine raises up off your hand for a few seconds. Repeat pressing down on you hand and arching up over it for about a minute. Now here is the trick, as your low back presses down on your hand, tighten the “Kagel” muscle, the muscle that would stop urine flow. Try to keep it tight for 5 counts. Do this for a minute a few times per day. Don’t do so much as to aggravate the discomfort of the nerve pain.

Back to my cliche. Prevention. Before or when you get pregnant it is important to really work the muscles that stabilize the pelvis and low back. You do this so that when the hormones start to loosen the strength of the ligaments you have the strength of the stabilizing muscles to make up for it. Keep working these muscles for the rest of your life to prevent future low back pain problems.

https://www.marshallnews.com/2022/07/15/sciatica-with-pregnancy/