Pelvic Pain: Overcoming Pelvic Pain During Pregnancy
With Gina and Roxanne
What is pelvic pain??
In today’s episode, we will be discussing pelvic pain and how to manage or alleviate it during pregnancy and the postpartum period.
So what is pelvic pain? And it’s something that a lot of us experience throughout our pregnancies and potentially even in the postpartum period.
Pelvic pain is going to be associated with the different pelvic joints and is usually felt like a sharp or shooting pain with like single leg or pivoting type movements.
This could include:
- Walking,
- Rolling in bed,
- Getting out of the car
These can all be things where we feel this sharp sudden pain and is usually associated with pelvic girdle pain.
You can either have pubic synthesis dysfunction (SPD), which is going to be more on the front side of the pelvis. You can have SI joint dysfunction (SJD), which is going to be more on the back side of the pelvis. It could even feel like sciatic-type pain, low back pain, or deep glute pain. Or you can even have, like, tailbone pain. So again really deep in the glute.
Usually, we only have one of them but you may have a combination of them as well and it may kind of shift around throughout your pregnancy.
Roxanne: So during my pregnancies, I had more SPD pain which is a pain in the front, but I also had some right si joint pain where I had a little bit more pain on the right side upper glute.
Gina: And then for me I tended to have more SI joint pain during my pregnancies. During my first one it was definitely the most severe because I didn’t know as much as I know now about managing and alleviating pelvic girdle pain.
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Is birth the only solution to pelvic pain? No.
Being in pain is not a requirement of pregnancy. And there's a lot that we can do to resolve pelvic pain so that we can have a pain free and a comfortable pregnancy, especially as we go into labor.
Gina: During my first pregnancy, I actually brought it up to my provider because it was really affecting my ability to work out. Like I couldn’t even squat without being in pain. And so I brought it up to my doctor and I was like hey, I’m having a lot of pain with this type of movement, is there anything that I can do?
And their solution, and this is a common solution that I’ll hear is after you give birth, it’ll go away. And it was really unhelpful.
And there actually is a lot that we can do to resolve pelvic pain, even during pregnancy.
Roxanne: So it’s very common for me as a labor and delivery nurse when people would come into triage reporting like, oh, I have this pelvic pain, or I have this back pain or hip pain, and I would just be like, oh, that’s very common during pregnancy. Unfortunately, there’s not much that we can do for it other than give you this belly band or hip brace and it’ll go away whenever you have the baby, which now I know is not necessarily always true.
There is stuff that we can do during pregnancy to help alleviate this pain and it also just doesn’t disappear all of a sudden once you have a baby, which I learned after I had my first when I had pretty bad SPD pain, I thought it would disappear instantly after birth, and it did not. I still had it for like a couple of days, I think like a couple of weeks after birth, I still had that pelvic pain. So, I lied to a lot of people without realizing.
Gina: Being in pain is not a requirement of pregnancy. And there’s a lot that we can do to resolve pelvic pain so that we can have a pain free and a comfortable pregnancy, especially as we go into labor.
2 Common Causes of Pelvic Pain
The two main causes of pelvic girdle pain are going to be muscular coordination or how the muscles are coordinating and working together to stabilize the pelvic joints. And this can be how strong the muscles are, how well they are synchronized with one another. And then the second thing is going to be pelvic asymmetry. So how is the pelvic position aligned to allow the joints to close well on themselves to stabilize?
What are the common causes of pelvic pain? And we’ll have folks that’ll debate this with us, or they’ll tell us that we’re wrong, but based on our experience and based on our research, this is what we find to be true.
Your pelvis has:
- Two halves and a sacrum or a triangular bone in the back are all connected and joined together by pelvic joints.
- Pelvic joints:
- Pubic Symphysis Joint on the front
- Sacral iliac joints or SI joints on the back.
- And then there’s also a joint between your sacrum and your tailbone because the tailbone can move around a little bit as well.
Two main causes of pelvic pain are, one can be there’s too much movement happening in that pelvic joint, and this could be due to the muscular sling that is supporting the joint, is not force closing the joint. So, the muscles that support that joint aren’t keeping it from moving too much.
There is this belief out there that there is no movement in the pelvis, that’s an immobile set of bones, but this is not true. There is some movement that happens within the pelvic girdle. It’s not like your hip or your shoulders, so it’s not an extreme movement, but there is some movement capability.
And during pregnancy we have an increase in the hormone relaxin, which is also going to increase the laxity of the joints, or it’s going to increase how much they move. And this is going to happen in kind of all our joints that are our body, but especially the pelvic girdle because we want it to have more movement capability because babies have big heads and we want the pelvis to be able to open more to accommodate for a baby’s head.
This extra movement that happens within the pelvic girdle has been documented in research to increase during pregnancy. And so outside of pregnancy, you may not notice or have any issues with pelvic girdle pain because there’s not as much movement that’s happening within the pelvic girdle compared to during pregnancy.
So you may suddenly find during pregnancy you have more pelvic girdle discomfort. And it may kind of linger a little bit postpartum because we still have that hormone relaxin moving throughout our body.
And so it’s important to note that increased levels of relaxin do not equal increased levels of pain because if the muscles supporting the pelvic girdle are strong and coordinated with one another, they’re going to decrease the movement that’s happening. They’re going to stabilize that joint better, and we’re not going to have that increased discomfort.
And so it’s not necessarily this increased level of relaxin, but rather how are we stabilizing our pelvic girdle.
The second thing that can cause pelvic pain is going to be pelvic asymmetry. So this means that the two pelvic halves, for lack of a better word, are misaligned or not quite positioned to each other to cause form closure. What happens is the pelvic joints have different shapes in them, and as we move, they kind of compress on themselves.
And if the pelvic girdle is not well aligned, it’s not going to close well on itself, and it can cause that discomfort. For a lot of us, we tend to have certain postural tendencies. And so for many of us, the right half of our pelvis tends to sit more backward in more of a posterior pelvic tilt, while the left half of the pelvis tends to sit more forward in this anterior pelvic tilt. We have this normal or common compensation where the pelvis is in this torque position.
And now when we walk, we want the two pelvic halves to shift back and forth. So, when I step forward, I want one half of my pelvis to shift forward. And then as my gait changes, I want it to shift the other way.
But it can become problematic when we’re kind of stuck in one position. So, when we’re stuck in that position where the right half sits more back and the left half sits more forward, then we start to see a lot of compensations. And so outside of pregnancy, it may not be a huge issue, but during pregnancy, where we have more issues associated with the pelvic girdle because there’s more movement happening, then being stuck in this postural tendency could cause that pelvic girdle pain. And now there’s also that relationship up and down the kinetic chain as well.
So how our pelvic position is can affect how our feet and our knees are going to be aligned and positioned and how our thoracic spine and rib cage is going to be positioned. Or maybe our rib cage position is what is influenced our pelvic position. And so it’s not just the pelvis. There are other things that we also potentially want to think about when it comes to pelvic girdle pain.
The two main causes of pelvic girdle pain are going to be muscular coordination or how the muscles are coordinating and working together to stabilize the pelvic joints. And this can be how strong the muscles are, how well they are synchronized with one another. And then the second thing is going to be pelvic asymmetry. So how is the pelvic position aligned to allow the joints to close well on themselves to stabilize?
Ways to Resolve Pelvic Girdle Pain
So now that we’ve talked about what are some common things that cause pelvic girdle pain, let’s discuss some solutions.
So what have we used in our training facility and with our online prenatal and postpartum fitness clients to find relief from pelvic girdle pain?
Because there’s a lot that we can do, both active treatments and passive treatments: things that you can do yourself and then things that you can see a professional for, such as a physical therapist or a chiropractor, or even a massage therapist.
Reset the Pelvic Position
The first thing that we can do is we can focus on our pelvic position.
So how can we reset how the pelvis is aligned so that it can move a little bit better, so that it can shift from side to side as we are walking, so that we’re not, quote unquote, stuck in one position.
And so, one of the things that we can do if you have more of like the front side pelvic pain or that pubic synthesis pain, is we can squeeze a ball between our thighs.
And this can sometimes do a little bit of a reset. And there’s different feet positions that you can do. You can use like a pillow, you can use a pilates ball, you can use a yoga block. Anything where we turn the inner thighs or the adductors on more can sometimes help reset how the pelvis is sitting.
The next thing that we can do is we can add in like a hip shift. So because we tend to be more stuck in that position where the right hip is back and the left hip is forward, if we kind of force the opposite, where the left hip shifts more back and the right hip shifts more forward, sometimes it can bring us back into a more neutral position or even release or stretch the opposite way so that our pelvis is not pulled or torqued in that opposite direction. And so, we can do this with like yoga blocks.
But the first thing that we can focus on is the pelvic position. And so, we can either reset it in the front side by like squeezing something between our thighs and you can kind of point the toes out, have them parallel or even point the toes in and then squeeze and see if that feels good for you. And then we can shift the hips. And this is especially going to be helpful for more of that backside pelvic pain and then even sometimes for the front side pelvic pain.
And so we’re going to shift the left hip back for most of us and then kind of breathe there. And this is going to kind of help stretch those muscles that may be pulling the pelvis really hard in that opposite direction.
If that was all super confusing and you’re not sure what position your pelvis is in, especially during pregnancy when movements just feel kind of weird, our body feels a little disconnected, seeing like a professional can be really helpful, especially like a pelvic floor physical therapist, particularly one that has been trained in postural restoration.
The Postural Restoration Institute is the one that has done a lot of research that supports that the pelvis is in this kind of asymmetrical position. And I have found that my clients that I have sent to see PTs that have the postural restoration certification tend to find more relief and recovery from their pelvic girdle pain.
We have a ton of physical therapists that we recommend, that also do virtual consults!
Increase the Muscular Support: Myofascial Slings
The next thing that we can do to support pelvic girdle pain is going to be supporting the musculature across those pelvic joints.
We can help increase the coordination of those muscles and we can increase the strength of those muscles. And then we can also do things to help release kind of the uneven pull of those muscles. It’s important to note that our muscles only have the ability to pull, not push.
And so, if the pelvis is being pulled into that torqued position where the right half is more back and the left half is more forward, those muscles are pulling the pelvis into that position.
We may want to release the tension in those muscles that are pulling, but then we also need to increase the strength in the opposite muscles to kind of pull the pelvis back into the opposite torque.
Strengthening Approach to Pelvic Pain Relief
Everyone's really looking for the glute stretch, that piriformis stretch, that stretch that they can do to release the pain. And I think for a lot of us, we tend to associate, like if I have a discomfort with, I need to stretch more, usually opposite of what we need. Now, there is some points where mobility can be helpful to release that uneven pull on the pelvic girdle, but we usually need more strengthening as opposed to more stretching when it comes to pelvic girdle pain.
One thing that we have found to be really helpful with supporting the pelvic girdle is going to be the myofascial slings. These are anatomy slings that are comprised of muscles, fascia ligaments that all work together to create stability and mobility. These slings work together to connect the upper and the lower body to support functional movement, especially rotation.
So think about walking, running, throwing, anything where the upper body and the lower body are working together to accomplish a super functional movement is going to be your myofascial slings. These are supporting and stabilizing your lower back and stabilizing within your pelvic girdle and then, of course, supporting that dynamic functional movement.
If the muscles supporting the pelvic joints are not coordinated, it can pull unevenly on the pelvic girdle or not cause that force closure on the pelvic joints where there is too much movement happening, which is causing that pain and remembering that there’s increased movement during pregnancy.
If the muscles are not supporting the pelvic joints, it can cause pain. And so usually what we’ll have is folks will send us a message on Instagram to say, hey, I’m having a lot of pain in my SI joint, or I’m having a lot of pain here. Like, what stretch can I do? Everyone’s really looking for the glute stretch, that piriformis stretch, that stretch that they can do to release the pain. And I think for a lot of us, we tend to associate, like if I have a discomfort with, I need to stretch more, usually opposite of what we need.
Now, there is some points where mobility can be helpful to release that uneven pull on the pelvic girdle, but we usually need more strengthening as opposed to more stretching when it comes to pelvic girdle pain.
The Four Myofascial Slings
There are four myofascial slings that support the pelvic girdle:
- The Anterior Oblique Sling
- The Posterior Oblique Sling
- Deep Longitudinal Sling
- Lateral Sling
The Anterior Oblique Sling and C-Section Recovery
On the front side, we have the anterior oblique sling that kind of runs from the chest to the obliques, it crosses the abdomen and crosses that pubic synthesis joint so that the front pelvic joint into the opposite adductor or inner thigh.
The anterior oblique sling is helping to stabilize the pubic symphysis joint or the pelvic joint on the front side of the body.
I tend to see that our c-section clients tend to have more pubic symphysis pain in subsequent pregnancies after their cesarean birth because that sling is essentially severed during a cesarean birth.
When we have that horizontal incision across the lower abdomen, it is essentially disconnecting this sling.
As a part of our C-section recovery program, we incorporate a lot of anterior oblique sling exercises.
After we did a lot of work with Casey, who helps us and helps review a lot of our fitness programs as a physical therapist. We did a lot of testing with our C-section clients and found that when we incorporated more anterior oblique sling work in the postpartum recovery program.
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A lot of our C-section clients just felt more connected, and they felt like they could activate their core better, and they just felt better in their bodies because of this incorporation.
If you’ve had a prior c-section and you’ve noticed in a subsequent pregnancy that you’re having a lot more pubic symphysis pain, it could be because of that anterior oblique sling being essentially disconnected and focusing more on reconnecting this sling by just doing movements that associate opposite sides together can help reconnect it and help you kind of resolve that discomfort in your pelvic girdle.
The anterior oblique sling, the movements that we can do to help strengthen this, are going to be inward rotation to the front side.
So, think my right shoulder moving towards my left hip or my left knee-type movements are going to help to strengthen this anterior oblique sling. We want the opposite chest and oblique to be working with the opposite inner thigh.
When we have that simultaneous contraction on both ends of the sling, it helps to strengthen this myofascial sling.
The Posterior Oblique Sling: SI Joint Support
The next sling that we have is the posterior oblique sling. So, this is going to be on the backside of our body and works in opposition to the anterior oblique sling.
When one anterior oblique sling is working, the opposite posterior oblique sling is working to support the rotational and functional movement.
So, like when I’m walking, for example, when I’m running, when I’m throwing, the two slings are working in opposition to one another to support that functional movement.
The posterior oblique sling is your lat, or one of your back muscles, and it’s crossing above the SI joints into the opposite glute. We have this cross on the back of the body, and we have this cross on the front side of the body.
The posterior oblique sling helps to stabilize the SI joints. it doesn’t cross the SI joint, but it’s supporting the musculature around the SI joint to help stabilize it.
During my pregnancies, I found incorporating a lot of posterior oblique sling-focused exercises helped me to manage my pelvic girdle pain. This is going to be a lat exercise.
Posterior Oblique Sling Exercise Breakdown
So usually like, a rowing movement with the opposite glute extending. So a big movement that we like to do is like a lunge with a banded row.
- I’m reaching forward with one hand, and then the opposite leg is going to be forward.
- As I stand up, I’m going to row that band back as I extend in the hip.
- If I’m holding the band in my left hand, my right leg is going to be my working leg, and my forward leg at the bottom. I’m reaching forward to feel more of a stretch in my lat and glute.
- And then as I exhale to stand up, I’m going to row the band back as I extend in the hip for that simultaneous contraction across the backside of the body.
My lat and my opposite glue are working together to help stabilize the SI joint. Watch this breakdown video for more of a visual explanation.
When we do our anterior oblique sling movements, and we do our posterior oblique sling movements, you should feel this kind of diagonal activation across the front side of the body for that anterior oblique sling and the back side of the body for that posterior oblique sling.
The Deep Longitudinal and Lateral Slings
The next two slings are the deep longitudinal and the lateral sling. These are going to be on more one side of the body.
So the deep longitudinal sling is from kind of like the back of your neck on one half. It runs down one side of your spine, all the way down the backside of one leg into the back of your ankle. This is going to be more like hinge-type movements toward one side.
And then the lateral sling is supporting single leg movements. it’s from your glute meat, it wraps around your leg to your inner thigh. So, this is supporting movement kind of on one leg at a time. The four of these slings are going to work together to help stabilize the pelvic girdle.
Mobility to Release the Uneven Pull
Because we can have this uneven pull on the pelvis, where the right hip is a little bit more back and the left hip is more forward, we may want to focus on releasing and this is where the stretching can become helpful.
We can focus on the muscles that are pulling the pelvis into this torque. We can release the front side of the left hip and the lats on the left side of the body can help that pelvic calf move a little bit more backward.
The left quad and hip flexor complex pull the pelvis into an anterior pelvic tilt, or forward, which may be unevenly pulling on the pelvis. Releasing the left side front thigh could help to reset the pelvic position.
For the left side of the body, we can do hip flexor and quad stretches in addition to lat stretches or like back stretches. And you can probably do the back and lat releases on both sides because a lot of us tend to favor more extension or more of an arch position in our back, which can pull the pelvis in a certain position as well.
And then for the right side, focusing more on releasing the inner thigh and the hamstring can help us bring that pelvis more forward.
And on the right side, we can focus on more like adductor releases. So, releasing the inner thigh, and this can help you kind of pull the pelvis to a more neutral position, to where we can then focus on strengthening. So, we can focus on strengthening the anterior oblique sling, that posterior oblique sling in both the deep and lateral slings.
The inner thigh (adductor) pulls the pelvis into internal rotation. The right side adductor tends to be tighter than the left, so focusing on releasing the right inner thigh may help the pelvis reset its position.
Our Personal Pelvic Girdle Pain Stories
Gina's SI Joint Dysfunction
During pregnancy, if we’re experiencing pelvic girdle pain, it can be really helpful to focus more on strengthening as opposed to stretching to resolve that pelvic girdle pain. For me, I tended to have more SI joint pain in my body during my pregnancies.
I found focusing on strengthening the muscles that were going to help pull my pelvis into a more neutral position was also really beneficial. So, in addition to the myofascial sling, so for me, I really emphasized that posterior oblique sling and the lateral sling, which were both really helping to stabilize my SI joint.
I was also incorporating movements that were strengthening the right glute med, so the side glute on the right side to kind of help pull that pelvis more forward on the right side. And then I was focusing on strengthening the left inner thigh a lot more because that’s what’s going to help pull that left hip more backwards.
I was doing movements like Bulgarian split squats for the right side and then Copenhagen planks, or like an inner thigh plank, for the left side. And those two exercises were really helping me manage my pelvic girdle pain in addition to the myofascial sling exercises.
Roxanne's SPD Story
So sometimes having a little bit of help with a belly band or seeing a chiropractor until you're able to kind of build that strength back up, reset that pelvic positioning on your own, this is like a really great option that is available to you.
So for me, because I experience a lot of SPD pain, so pain in the front pubic bone with some si joint pain, I focus mostly on my anterior oblique strengthening.
I did ball squeezes to help reset the pelvic positioning, which I learned, obviously from Gina, but I learned a lot from my friends who were midwives that experienced SPD pain. Just doing ball squeezes, I would feel a lot of relief instantly, but then I went to a certain chiropractor who showed me different feet positions with ball squeezes, and that changed my life with SPD, where I actually got a little bit more relief from that.
And then I focused on, again, strengthening that anterior oblique sling. So, I did a lot of Copenhagen planks for adductor strengthening because one of my adductors is significantly tighter and stronger than my other one is a lot weaker. So, that’s usually the side I was feeling all of my SPD pain a little bit more on, so I had a little bit more pain on my left side, and then there was like swelling and all that stuff just because that right adductor is so much weaker than my left one.
So, it was like pulling my pelvic bone almost out of place. That was causing a lot of pain for me.
I also focused on that posterior chain (back side and glutes). One, it’s just great for labor. Everyone should strengthen their posterior chains. But I was having that slight SI joint pain.
So, I was doing a lot of Bulgarian split squats, and even like, deadlifts sometimes would cause me to have some pain because of my, probably my pelvic positioning. So I would have to focus a lot on my deadlift positioning so that I wouldn’t have SI joint pain and then be able to actually gain the benefits of strengthening that posterior chain.
I also found that with my pelvic pain, I obviously needed to do all of these exercises and they were really good for me. But sometimes I found myself not being able to do all of the exercise I needed in order to be pain-free.
So I found like, belly bands to be helpful for when I would do a twelve-hour shift. Like, these belly bands actually provided a lot of relief for me for the days that I could not rest or do some sort of movement to help relieve my pelvic pain. Because we all have lives and we know that you can’t just sit at the gym for 30 minutes to an hour every day to be able to keep your pelvic pain at bay.
So, sometimes having a little bit of help with a belly band or seeing a chiropractor until you’re able to kind of build that strength back up, reset that pelvic positioning on your own, this is like a really great option that is available to you.
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Passive Relief Techniques: Extra Support
You don't always have time to go and do all these exercises, or sometimes you're just in too much pain to start with the exercises. Finding a way to find some immediate or a little bit of relief can be super beneficial.
With all of these active modalities that we were talking about, like strengthening the exercise movements that you can do, like Roxanne was saying, there are a lot of more passive treatments that you can do too, or passive things that you can do to support finding comfort throughout pregnancy.
You don’t always have time to go and do all these exercises, or sometimes you’re just in too much pain to start with the exercises.
Finding a way to find some immediate or a little bit of relief can be super beneficial.
- Seeing a perinatal chiropractor can be pretty beneficial. So these are going to be like Webster-certified chiropractors. Or even if you just have a local chiropractor who maybe isn’t Webster certified, they can be really beneficial. It’s just kind of helping to reset the pelvic position to a point where you’re not in pain anymore.
- Seeing a massage therapist can be pretty beneficial if maybe it’s like this uneven pull on the pelvis that’s causing that pelvic position.
- Seeing a pelvic floor or a physical therapist can be beneficial. They can do some passive treatments such as, like, dry needling, cupping, and all sorts of different things to help kind of reset the position.
So once we have a little pain relief, then we can start to do some of these strengthening exercises.
I also found a belly band to be pretty helpful for me during my pregnancy, especially the later half when I was on my feet a lot more and my belly was just feeling a lot heavier. Wearing a belly band was something that I found really beneficial to support my pelvic pain as well.
During my pregnancy, I used the Bao Bei Pro Bump band that I loved a lot. I felt like it was almost like a sports bra for my belly and was super beneficial.
And then there are a lot of other really great options out there, too. Sometimes wearing, like, maternity leggings that come up really high can just provide a little bit of support.
Sometimes your provider has one that they can write you a prescription for, which is usually included with insurance.
There are a lot of different options out there to help support your abdomen. So the Bao Bei Pro Bump is obviously what I used as well because Gina gave it to me. And then there are other brands such as the Belly Bandit, which is well known. It’s You Babe has pregnancy ones, so they’ll wrap around the belly and lift it up too.
And then I think Mama Strut has one for pregnancy as well as postpartum. So those are some brands that I’ve heard recommended by not just us, but also pelvic floor Pts.
Pelvic Pain and Labor
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We offer a pelvic stability program that is going to incorporate a lot of those myofascial sling exercises. And we’ve had a lot of folks reach back to us to tell us that the program has really helped them a lot to just be comfortable throughout their pregnancies.
Because one of the things that a lot of folks tend to have anxiety about as they’re navigating their pregnancies while being in pain is, how am I going to labor with this pelvic pain when I can’t even walk.
When it comes to managing pelvic pain during labor, the first thing that we want to do is try to resolve it during pregnancy as best as we can.
But obviously we have lives. Sometimes we can’t go see a physical therapist or a chiropractor. And there’s also like a financial aspect to investing in all of these treatments.
If we can’t find a way to find relief from pelvic pain before labor, the things that I would recommend is first to try to keep more of an even stance or keep your feet even with one another as you labor.
Maybe dropping into a super deep squat is not really comfortable for you. So maybe we want to sit on a ball with your feet together and you’re rocking front to back if baby is still high in the pelvis. Or maybe you’re rocking side to side on the ball if baby is engaged in rotating through the pelvis.
But being in more like supported positions and in positions where your feet are even with one another can be really helpful. And you can still move to create space in the pelvis. So, sitting on a ball is a great option. Being on all fours is a great option. Leaning on the ball, so rocking front to back if baby’s high or side to side if baby is engaged and rotating through the pelvis. There are a lot of labor positions that you can do even with pelvic pain.
Now, if you are pushing, spreading the knees super wide can potentially not be super comfortable. So just relax in the legs a little bit more. They can still be wider but just don’t spread them to max width. Also, that’s going to close your pelvic outlet. So not super beneficial for pushing in general, but just try to relax the legs a little bit more. And this is going to help to relieve some of that pelvic pain as you’re pushing.
And what I tend to find is that if somebody has pelvic pain as they go into labor, they tend to just avoid the movements that cause them pain. And it tends to be a nonissue for most of my clients, I would say, like, occasionally there’s like one movement where they’re like, that didn’t feel good. But I would say 99% of the time people don’t even notice the pelvic pain because sometimes even as baby drops into your pelvis, they help stabilize it a little bit more.
Roxanne’s Experience Laboring with Pelvic Pain:
And with me, I had really bad SPD pain with my first where it would bring me to tears up until delivery. And I just didn’t do any one legged movement. So I never went into a lunge during my labor because my brain knew that’s going to be pretty painful, maybe just don’t do that. But I was still able to move and I didn’t even notice my SPD pain as I progressed through labor. I actually forgot about it until I walked to the bathroom after my baby was born.
So if you have pelvic girdle pain and you’re feeling a little bit anxious about how you’re going to navigate labor, one, trying to do the different things that we recommended in this podcast episode to resolve that pain is going to be really helpful.
But if you don’t resolve it before your labor, it’s probably not going to be a huge issue, because you’re just going to avoid movements that cause you pain.
And there are a lot of laboring positions that we can do that doesn’t cause pain but can still support labor progress. Focus on the feet being together, and focus on more supported positions such as using the birth ball to either sit or be on all fours on can be really helpful while you’re laboring with pelvic pain.
You do NOT need to be in pain!
Pelvic girdle pain is common during pregnancy, but it’s not mandatory. Just because you’re pregnant does not mean that you have to have pelvic girdle pain. There are a lot of things that we can do to resolve it during our pregnancy, and there are a lot of things that we can do to minimize the discomfort during our labors.
If you still have pelvic girdle pain as you go into your labor, pelvic girdle pain is caused generally by two main things, and then obviously, it can be a lot more complex depending on you as an individual.
But the main things that are potentially going to cause pelvic girdle pain are going to be, one, what is the pelvic position, and then two, how well are the muscles supporting that pelvic joint as you are moving.
If the pelvic position is off, or even for lack of a better word, like stuck in one position that’s causing a compensation pattern, we may have some discomfort or pain.
And then if the muscles supporting that pelvic joint are not strong and coordinated, it can cause too much movement or instability in the joint, which then causes that pain.
Focusing on the pelvic position, in addition to focusing on strengthening the muscular slings across the pelvic joint and helping to strengthen the muscles that pull the pelvis into better positions, can be really beneficial throughout your pregnancy.
You can definitely see different professionals to help support pelvic girdle pain, such as a chiropractor or massage therapist, which can help kind of release the uneven pull of the pelvis. This can help you find some immediate relief so that you can then do more exercises and more strengthening things.
Wearing a belly band can be really helpful to bring some of that relief to where you can then do some exercises.
Seeing a physical therapist or a pelvic floor physical therapist or even an occupational therapist can help you learn some exercises and movements and understand more about how your body is individually moving to help correct kind of the biomechanical pattern that may be causing your pelvic girdle pain. There are a lot of resources available to you throughout your pregnancy so that you can be comfortable and you can be pain-free.
Hopefully, this episode has given you some ideas on things that you can do to find some of that pain relief and find some of that comfort for your pregnancy. And then it gives you some ideas of different professionals and resources to reach out to you so that you can have a better understanding of how your body moves.
Don’t accept that, hey, your pelvic pain will just go in when you have a baby, that’s the only solution to pelvic pain. That is not true.
We can focus on how is our pelvis positioned, what type of movement patterns you favor, what kind of postural tendencies you favor that may be influencing the way that your pelvic girl can close on itself, and how it can stabilize on itself. We hope you enjoyed this episode and that it gives you some tools to find comfort throughout your pregnancy.
If you want more, join our three-week Pelvic Stability Program. It’s an on-demand program where it’s full-length workout videos that you follow as you work out at the same time. It also comes with an ebook if you prefer to work out on your own.
The workouts are involving a lot of those Myofascial sling exercises so that we can focus on the strengthening aspect to help stabilize the pelvic girdle.
Each workout only takes 15 to 30 minutes, so it’s really easy to add into either a workout program that you’re already using or just doing them entirely on its own. So I did the Pelvic Stability Program just by itself for the first couple of weeks of my pregnancy because it was really easy to just complete and feel like I got a workout in.