Sciatic Pregnancy | What Can You Do To Help Yourself?

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 most of the cases sciatic pregnancy pain will disappear by itself, but it is possible for the process to take up to six weeks and over. For some patients it has been beneficial to plan routine visits with their physical therapist in order to get help to relieve their symptoms. In many cases manual therapy relieves the pressure and discomfort from the back pain you may experience 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.

To relieve their sciatic pregnancy pain, some women also use chiropractic treatment. Only make sure, when seeing a manual therapist or chiropractor, that they have experience working with prenatal patients.

Massage therapy has been found helpful by many women to reduce inflammation and related symptoms caused by sciatica. Muscle tension and tightness can be greatly relieved through massages. When certain muscle groups tighten too much (like the piriformis muscle in your buttocks) they are likely to contribute to your sciatica condition. Circulation is increased by massages and the healing process speeds up considerably by the reduced tension and inflammation.

Should you develop pregnancy sciatica make sure you’ll consult your doctor or physical therapist about what kinds of treatments are available to you, especially in your condition, since not every treatment for sciatica is for every cause of it and especially during pregnancy the choice of therapy needs to be made carefully with the help of knowledgeable professionals. Cold/Hot treatment may be applied, as may bed rest for some days, until the acute pain simmers down. Changes in posture may be greatly beneficial to alleviate pain and pressure on your discs since one of the main underlying causes of sciatica is poor posture.

Learn more about sciatic pregnancy. Stop by Christina Meier’s site where you can find out all about sciatic pregnancy and how to get some help.