Sciatic Pregnancy | Is There Something You Can Do?

By Christina Meier

Sciatic Pregnancy - what options do you actually have during pregnancy, a time that should be joyful and exciting, when your sciatic nerve is acting up and makes you miserable? Pregnancy sciatica is actually a list of symptoms that become apparent when the sciatic nerve gets irritated. This nerve runs from your lower back, through the muscles of your buttocks and the back of the thighs down into your feet. The nerve tends to get inflamed due to being pressured by for example a tightened muscle (as would be the case in piriformis syndrome) or a herniated disk or another underlying condition. Symptoms include numbness in your lower back, or a tingly or burning sensation, or even achy or shooting pains all the way down your leg.

During their pregnancy women are more prone to experiencing injury to their disks. Since the location and position of the baby during the second and third trimesters puts it quite close to the area the sciatic nerve runs through. Pressure on the nerve usually heightens during that time and it's no surprise when an previously existing sciatica problem takes a turn for the worse; or that the added weight around the waist combined with the loosening up of ligaments and tendons in preparation for birth heighten the probability for a disk injury, which in turn puts pressure on the sciatic nerve.

In many cases sciatic pregnancy pain disappears on its own, but sometimes the process may take as many as six weeks or even more. Some patients schedule routine visits with their physical therapist to help them to relieve some of the symptoms. Often manual therapy helps relieve discomfort and pressure from back pain during pregnancy.

Your physical therapist might also be a good person to talk to in order to find you some suitable sciatic pregnancy exercises, that would be beneficial in your pain management and would also strengthen your back and abdominal muscles and the muscles of the pelvic floor. If these muscle groups are in good condition you may experience less difficulty during the birthing process and even during recuperation afterwards.

When relying on chiropractic care or manual therapy for the relief of your sciatic pregnancy pain, make sure that they are experienced in working with prenatal patients.

To reduce inflammation and other sciatica symptoms many women have found massage therapy to be very helpful, since it greatly relieves muscle tension and tightness. When certain muscle groups tense up too much (like for example the piriformis muscle in your buttocks) they will probably add to your sciatica pain. Massages reduce tension and inflammation and therefore help to increase circulation and speed up the healing process.

If you start feeling the symptoms of pregnancy sciatica be sure consult your physician or back specialist about the kinds of treatments that are available to you in your special condition, because not every sciatica treatment is for every sciatica cause and especially during pregnancy you need to make a careful and educated choice of treatment with the help of professional therapists. Hot/Cold therapy could be applied; also bed rest would be beneficial for a couple of days, until the worst of the pain subsides. One of the main underlying causes for sciatica is poor posture. So paying close attention to maintaining correct posture will be very beneficial to relieve pain and the pressure on your disks. - 32188

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