1st Trimester
SI Joint Pain?
Hi, Everyone
I am 10 weeks pregnant and for the past 2 weeks, I have been experiencing pain in the back of my hips at the bottom of my spine, on both sides. This pain makes me gasp and moan a lot of times after laying for a while or sitting. It seems to go away if I am up and walking for a little bit, but as soon as I sit down, it's back! I read that this could be an SI Joint Dysfunction. Does anyone else have this problem? Can you share some exercises or tips to help alleviate this constant pain?
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Re: SI Joint Pain?
Congrats on your pregnancy!
Let me tell you about tail bone pain! I have such severe pain that I thought I had a fracture in my pelvic gridle. It is nothing to laugh at. I posted on here about it and a lot of other girls had the same issue.
For me doing things like cleaning my floor or sitting in the same hard chair for too long made it so much worse.
I found that a heating pad helped some. I asked my OB about it and he said he had no idea...he was also in a hurry and walking out of the room!
Try to take it easy and see if it goes away.
SI joint pain is very common in pregnancy. The joint is held together by lots of very thick ligaments and when you become pregnant, those ligaments become more lax to allow for your pelvis to expand. Heat may help relieve the pain temporarily, but ultimately you need to do work on strengthening your gluts, hip muscles, low back and lots of trunk stabilization. Pilates is great, if you can find a prenatal class or at least if the instructor can modify your routine for your pregnancy. You can check out this website. I'm not sure how good it is, but it seems to have a bunch of different exercises you can try. I hope this helps!
https://www.pilates-back-joint-exercise.com/SI-Joint-Treatment.html
Ask your Dr. for a prescription to go to physical therapy. Just a few sessions can make a big difference. It is super common in preganancy. I used to work in a clinic that saw 70% pregnant/post-partum women and I was surprised by the amount of women that PT really helped. They can help to correct the SI joint dysfunction and give you a few exercises to do through your pregnancy. Usually it is abdominal and gluteal exercises. Also try to make your movements symmetrical. No crossing legs, doing stairs two at time, and sleeping with your legs together and not letting one fall over the other (or on a pillow).
you can search pt's in your area at apta.org under find a provider. If you can find one that has the initials OCS this would probably be a good one to go to. It means orthopedic certified specialist.
Pilates is good too, but PT can help correct the alignment problem and then if you wanted to go to pilates after that would be an OK idea if you want more of a class situation.