The “magic” key to avoiding back pain in pregnancy and postnatal back ache

4 June 2015

I read a pretty scary statistic the other day: that 9 out of 10 women experience some form of back pain in pregnancy.

I believe it.

I see it in my working life all the time.

Apparently the government spends £1 billion every year on back pain related expenses, and 31 million days of work are, on average, lost every year.

That’s a major impact on our economy, if you ask me.

Not to mention the individual suffering of continuous or even sporadic pain. It can really get you down over the days, weeks and months.

When I herniated a disc in my back earlier this year I noticed a number of things about me:

I started to think in quite a negative manner about all sorts of things
I felt pretty sorry for myself
It made me feel OLD before my time
I lacked my usual “get up and go”
I started to focus inwardly on myself rather than looking about at the big wide world
I was constantly exhausted
I caught far more common viruses than I usually would. Perhaps it was psychosomatic? Perhaps ongoing pain supresses the immune system? I don’t know.

Maybe these are things that you too have noticed? Or perhaps back pain has affected or does affect you in other ways – I’d love to hear your experiences.

Your back is vulnerable in pregnancy and mummyhood

Back trouble is incredible common. Full stop.

In pregnancy and postnatally, it is even more so and here is why:

Growing a bump changes your posture and, in turn, this places pressure through your back and joints.
As your pregnancy progresses, your bump stretches and weakens your abdominals.
Your abdominals are like a corset that protects your back and keeps you upright with great posture. Pregnancy loosens the corset and so, in turn, your back finds itself unprotected and vulnerable.
Once you’ve had your baby your bump disappears more or less – yippee! But you are left with an even looser corset. To a degree the bump actually provided an element of support. Now even that has gone.
And then what? You suddenly find yourself lifting a baby/pram/buggy/car seat about 100 times a day. So perhaps you had a desk job before. Now your body is confronted with some major manual labour! That’s tough.
Not only that but your “manual labour” is wriggly and gets heavier over the months! By the time you have a toddler we are talking daily wrestling matches – to get socks on, to get into the car seat, to get into the cot/out of the cot and so on…

I’m going to ask you this question but I think I already know the answer:

“Every time you stand, sit, walk, pick something up from the floor, go about your mummy manual labour life, do you think about how you are going to perform these movements? Or do you just kind of do them?”

I’m guessing that you just go for it.

That’s perfectly understandable.

The problem is that most of us go about our daily lives in a manner that doesn’t really help our backs. In fact, most of what we do is liable – over time – to hurt our backs.

What sort of things?

Well here are some example:

Stooping down to pick something up from the floor: the stiff legs, rounded back and shoulders approach.
Crouching as we lean into the back seat of the car to lift a heavy car seat out, all whilst twisting and rotating through the upper body. Basically, an unholy yank, pull and twist.
Flopping down onto the sofa after a tough day – back rounded, tail bone tucked under, shoulders hunched forwards.
Sitting. Yep, just sitting for ages every day. Sitting places 4 times more pressure through your spine than standing. Lying is even kinder to the spine but we can’t do that all day!
And HOW we sit: posture? No really, how do you sit?
And then there’s standing around – I often catch myself standing with my weight on one foot, hip pushed out to the side. Do you do that too?

And I could pick up on many more things we unconsciously do every day.

So what is the magic key to preventing back pain in pregnancy and beyond?

I think it can be boiled down to two crucial elements:

Posture
Core strength

Get these two vital aspects right and you can then apply them to everything you do in your daily life: walking, standing, sitting, picking up, reaching, exercising, feeding your little one, working at a desk, driving.

Literally every activity in life.

Posture to prevent back pain in pregnancy and postnatal back pain

Stand sideways on in front of a full length mirror and take a look at your posture. How’s it looking?

Your back shouldn’t be flat – that’s not good posture – but it should have its 4 natural curves as follows:
The neck curves gently forwards but not so much so that your chin is jutting forwards
The upper back has a very mild curve backwards
Your lower back arches forwards but in not too pronounced a manner – pregnancy will cause the arch to increase but you can still work on reducing this arch.
The tailbone – your sacrum - tucks under.

Think of these four soft arches in your spine as a shock absorber – like a spring – which, if out of kilter, can’t do its job properly.

Let’s sort posture out this week – try this!

Stand with your feet directly under your hips. Now let’s start from the head and work downwards:
Tuck your chin in slightly so that your head doesn’t jut forwards
Roll your shoulders up to your ears, then backwards and squeeze the shoulder blades together.
Now drop the shoulders down away from your ears but don’t let them round forwards. Feel a little bit of tension between the shoulder blades and keep hold of it!
Open out your chest and feel yourself lengthening upwards between your chest and your pelvis – it’s a bit like “unscrunching” yourself and giving yourself space to breath.
Now imagine that you have a string attached to the top of your head and it is drawing you upwards very softly, making you 2 inches taller.
Take a look at the arch in the small of your back: if you are expecting and have a big bump the arch may well be very noticeable. If so, tilt your pelvis under ever so slightly so that you are lengthening the lower back and no longer sticking out your bottom but still have a soft arch in the lower back.
Let’s consider the abdominals: lightly draw your abdominals inwards towards your spine, all whilst imagining that you are drawing your hips together and lifting your pelvic floor gently inwards and upwards. Keep breathing!
Moving on down: just check that you are not standing with your knees locked out. If you are, soften the knees slightly.
Feet? Grounded with weight distributed evenly left and right. Don’t put all your weight on one foot as it will put all the rest of your wonderful postural work out of alignment.

So that’s your postural check list for this week!

Here’s your challenge until next week when I cover “Magic Key #2: core strength”:

Have a go at this postural check list a few times in front of a mirror.

Really concentrate on what it feels like when your posture is correct.

Remember that feeling.

Now have a go at maintaining great posture all week, whatever you are doing:

Sitting

Standing

Walking

Picking up – bend through the knees and keep your spinal posture

Feeding – if you have a baby

Everything

It will probably feel quite tiring if the muscles aren’t used to it but see how you get on and let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

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