SPD in pregnancy - your advice wanted

[LionsandBears]

hi. I've just developed SPD. I'm off to a GP today to confirm, but went to osteo yesterday who agreed.

Symptoms include extreme pain in hips, lower back and pubic bone/groin area, difficulty walking up and down stairs. Lots of pain when getting out of bed or a chair. From what I've read, that sounds like SPD or something like it.

Given I'm just under 22 weeks now, what advice can you give me to manage it for the rest of the pregnancy? I will still do pilates (clinical with a physio), not sure if I can keep up bellydancing or yoga. I assume gentle walking will be OK. And then lots of treatment. The osteo helped. Does anyone have any experience with an acupuncurist in Melbourne who's pregnancy qualified?

How about birth? Will it make a difference? I'm planning a homebirth, probably a water birth. I'm thinking I need to start listening to my hypnobabies CDs now, just to manage this pain.

TIA

[~Raven~]

Owies

Birth shouldn't be a problem and it sounds like you have a gentle birth planned which should be helpful. In my experience there was no more pain when up on knees but laying on the side and on my back there was.

I did Belly Dance for Birth and found it good to help my pelvic floor strength but be careful not to overdo it. With yoga I actually found it hard because of some positions having one foot further forward then the other. Pilates was great I found because it encourages more balance with the pelvis. Toward the end of my PG I did most of the workout sitting on the fitball because getting up and down off the floor was too hard.

The physio should help you out with day to day movement strategies, but basically you need to be aware of keeping your knees together when you do everything and also the spines at the back of your pelvis balanced. ie Getting in and out of the car you should put your bum on the seat first and bring your legs in together, instead of stepping one foot in and then your bum down then the other foot in (hope that makes sense) and to get out you swing both feet out first and then stand up. Also never get up off the floor in a one knee kneeling position - bad bad bad! Crawl to a couch and use it to help yourself up and keep your knees together.

[AnyDream]

Sweetie you need to stop the bellydancing asap - too many of the movements put asymmetrical stress on the pelvis, which will exacerbate the stretching. Moves that you can still do (provided they're not causing pain) include any of upper body isolations (ie your rib, shoulder and arm movements) and those pelvic lifts where the pelvis moves back and forwards (we call it a pelvic tilt) but nothing side to side which rules out all the circles and hip lift/drop/shimmies (ie the bulk of bellydancing). The physio will be able to advise you further re other activities, but I found even basic-non-exercise walking was too much, and had to organise my days around taking as few steps as possible...anything that twists or places strain on the pelvis needs to be avoided, this includes stairs, walking up hills, carrying things, even pushing shopping trolleys. This is one condition where you should not try to "push through" the pain, it can get much much worse and you dont' want to land yourself in a walking frame or wheelchair just because you pushed earlier when you shouldn't have. Sounds scary, but it can be managed and it's helpful to remember that it's only temporary.

[LionsandBears]

Wow! OK. Thanks for the advice. I definately do not want it getting any worse. I was thinking I'd have to give up bellydancing - the staying symmetrical thing makes sense. pity, because I really enjoy it and it was helping prepare for birth. I have Belly Dance for Birth - I wonder if I could adjust it to do it on a fitbaall?

Not sure about the yoga - will have to talk to the instructor, but can see so many poses I won't be able to do anymore.

With pilates, a lot of it is on a fitball. I have a fitball at home and have been doing gentle exercises - tilting back and forth and circles. May have to stop the alternating lifting hips though.....will talk to the physio.

Getting off the floor without doing the one-knee thing is hard - will have to practice that. I'm already doing the getting in and out of the car like royalty and have started putting pants etc on/off while sitting down. I've also noticed I've recently developed an unladylike splay when sitting to take into account the belly, with my legs spread and flopped to the side. Have to learn to stop that. I just hate this feeling less able that I'm used to - I have more energy now than in the first trimester and want to exercise more. It's frustrating that it's now so painful to just roll over in bed!

Ah well. We'll get there. Thanks for all the insight. The upside is apparantly it may help birth easier as the pubis is so stretched... hope so.