Pregnancy health centre

Back pain during pregnancy or after a baby

Annoying but true: babies and backache go together like bread and butter. Even if you're not prone to back pain already, lugging a bump on your front for nine months, then toting round several pounds of baby for months after that is almost bound to cause a twinge or two.

And the twinge potential's made even worse by your pregnancy hormones. Part of their job is to loosen up all your ligaments so your body's nice and stretchy for the birth.

But that stretchiness is still there in the first few weeks after delivery, making it terribly easy to push or twist your body beyond its normal limits as you lift your baby in and out of his cot or balance your older child on your hip.

Mother-of-three Jules MacMahon had excruciating backache after her first pregnancy. This is her story:

'My back trouble began when I was at school and a naughty friend pulled away my chair. Result: a broken coccyx and a prolapsed disc, neither of which was properly dealt with at the time.

'I entered my first pregnancy (many years later, I might add!) with huge trepidation but I was wonderfully surprised to find it was backache-free.

'The doctor put it down to the general loosening of ligaments that occurs during pregnancy. But a few weeks after my son was born, the problems started: continuous lumbar aches, the sensation of being "locked" in peculiar positions and sudden, wince-inducing pains.

'Looking back, it isn't hard to see why: I was hauling a bulky car seat (and a strapping son) in and out of a two-door car, bending in all sorts of wrong ways to pick him up and sitting awkwardly to breastfeed.

'My backache was so severe, I got scared of doing anything that might make it worse, and that was when I turned to the experts for help.

'I saw doctors, chiropractors and osteopaths and they all offered suggestions - some more helpful than others. Lying on the floor for two weeks was the worst: not only did it make my back seize up, it was also absolutely impossible with a crawling baby!

'Eventually, I was measured for a back brace. It looked rather like a Victorian corset with fiendish metal struts.

'I hated wearing it, but it did make me totally aware of my posture: I had to get down on my knees to unload the dishwasher!

'Pregnancies two and three followed the same pattern as my first - but, each time, I got better at beating the backache that followed the birth.

'I concentrated hard on my posture, and made sure I always lifted things properly with a straight back and bent knees. And I took up swimming - doing it regularly keeps my tummy muscles really strong.

'Now they provide a natural brace and, thankfully, I no longer need to wear the dreaded corset!'
Make sure you ask for help if you're in pain - go to see your doctor, or enlist your partner, friends and neighbours to take on physical tasks that are too much for you.'