Positions to relieve pelvic pain during pregnancy
If you’re pregnant, then you already know that pregnancy can come with a wide range of symptoms. From nausea and fatigue to restless leg syndrome and varicose veins, pregnancy is a huge physical undertaking!
When pregnant women call my clinic, they’re usually experiencing one or more of the following symptoms:
Pelvic pain, pelvic girdle pain (pgp), either in the lower abdomen, the front of the pelvis, the pubic symphysis, the genitals, or near the tailbone
Lower back or hip pain
Pelvic pressure
Bladder symptoms, such as urinary leakage or sudden urges to need to use the restroom
Core weakness, or concern for diastasis recti
The great news is that all of the above can be addressed with pregnancy and postpartum pelvic floor physical therapy!
This post is going to focus specifically on pain and some positions to relieve pelvic pain during pregnancy.
If you're experiencing pelvic pain, you can try them out and hopefully they’ll help you start feeling better!
So without further ado, here are some positions to try:
1.Inversions
A lot of pelvic pain during pregnancy can be caused by the physical weight of the baby putting too much pressure on the pelvis - it’s just biomechanics!
So to combat this, we want to use gravity in our favor by laying with our hips elevated above our heart.
This will naturally take some of that pressure off and allow your pelvis, which may have been tightening up in an attempt to support all of that extra pressure, to relax. Two of my favorite ways to do this are by:
Laying with a wedge or pillows under your hips
Laying with your legs up a wall
2.Pelvic stretches
Another common cause of pelvic pain during pregnancy is tense pelvic floor muscles.
During pregnancy, as the pelvis becomes a little more flexible, the surrounding muscles sometimes respond by tightening up to provide some stability. Everybody has a little muscle tension, which is actually a good thing, but too much tension can cause pain.
While you may be thinking that strengthening your pelvic floor may help your symptoms improve and also prepare you for birth, I find that patients really need the relaxation and stretching part much more than the strengthening part.
So stretching the pelvic muscles can help tremendously. Here are a few of my favorite stretches:
Figure 4 leg sways
All fours rocking into child’s pose
Kneeling hip flexor stretch
3.Using pillows to support you in different sleeping positions
When you’re lying down, using pillows (regular pillows or pregnancy pillows) can help support your body to take some pressure off. Here are three ways to do that:
When lying on your back, put a pillow underneath your knees.
When lying on your side put a pillow underneath your belly and another pillow between your legs.
When transitioning between positions (for example, when going from lying on your back to sleeping on your side), squeeze a pillow between your legs as you move. This will help you keep your legs together to help the pelvis feel more supported. It should also force you to use your inner thigh muscles which can help support the pelvis as well. See the log roll demo below.
Give those a try! I hope they help!
One last note, my obvious disclaimer is that if you’re having pain during pregnancy and these Internet tips and tricks aren’t resolving it, I always recommend an individualized assessment with a pelvic floor physical therapist.
Pregnancy and postpartum pelvic floor therapy and birth preparation
If you’re local to Durham, NC or the surrounding areas, I’d love to help you feel good during your pregnancy! If you have questions about pelvic floor physical therapy, you can schedule a complimentary discovery call with me here.
