I was pregnant with my first child in 2005. I had the customary nausea, which cleared up by 19 weeks, in the New Year. I kept myself active with my yoga classes walking the dog in the park and riding my horse.
By week 24 I started to feel heavy in the belly and it turned out that my muscles had separated, so I wore a tubi-grip that the midwives at the Family Birth Centre gave me. The tubi-grip was an enormous help, so I kept riding, though the fatigue in my belly was really felt when I was at work for my casual job in retail.
By week 26 I knew something else was going on with excruciating pain in my groin. The GP I had asked unhelpfully offered that it was 'part of the territory'. I never mentioned it again to a GP in that pregnancy and subsequently I found references to a condition called Symphisis Pubis Dysfunction, or SPD. It is a pelvic girdle pain caused by the early loosening of the ligaments in some pregnant women.
I asked the midwives about it and they confirmed my self-diagnosis, giving me tips on how to manage it, as far as they were informed about it. Further internet research led me to the wonderful Pelvic Instability Association of Australia, as it was known then and is now simply PIA (due to increasing awareness that not all pelvic girdle pain, or PGP is due to instability).
At about week 33 I went to a comedy show in town and managed to fracture the ball of my foot from climbing the steps to my seat during loo trips and intermission. As a result, I spent a good 3 to 4 weeks on crutches. I had never used crutches before and I was using them all wrong, which caused upper body problems to boot! The crutches, I realised, also took a lot of weight-bearing from my pelvis and provided relief, even though I had soft tissue bruising under my arms.
Night-time loo trips were painful and, mercifully, we lived in a house with a narrow hallway, so that I could hold onto the walls to get to the loo. Getting myself in and out of the car was painful and going to people's places with stairs or inclines involved turned social occasions into resentment-inducing occasions.
I slept with a pillow between my thighs for side-sleeping and that seemed to help with the pain overnight. Apart from that, all I had was my heat pack and a hospital physio who generally just made things worse for me.
In the days leading up to the birth my pelvis had decided to give me a break and I had other things to concentrate on. We had invested in HypnoBirthing classes and had planned a waterbirth with the FBC midwives.
The birth was glorious and went right to plan. After the birth I was able to walk around and we left for home the next day. I commented that the literature was right, and that the pelvic pain had gone away after the birth.
I was wrong. Not 3 weeks later the familiar tugging returned and I resumed appointments with the hospital physios. After the 3rd appointment, a couple of months later, one of the young physios looked at me sympathetically and said that she had heard that relaxin was the hormone implicated in SPD. She said (and I already knew) that relaxin was present in the body whilst breastfeeding, "so, how long does breastfeeding last...3 or 4 months?". That was my last hospital physio appointment, as I needed a caregiver who was, at the very least, familiar with the World Health Organisation's recommendation to breastfeed for a minimum of 2 years. Breastfeeding got off to a rocky start and I wasn't going to give it up due to not-very-evidence-based advise about relaxin exacerbating my pelvic condition.
When my son was about a year old I asked the question on the Australian Breastfeeding Association's discussion forum and was directed to a good osteopathy clinic near me. I have never looked back and osteopathy has been a part of my life ever since. I already had a myotherapist, but my condition wasn't responding to her modalities and one single osteo treatment had me walking in much more comfort than I had since before the pain had set in.
I started doing yoga again, I was back horse riding (though, with other life commitments now, my riding habit was much-reduced in frequency) and in the pool a lot with baby swim lessons.
Next post: second pregnancy and life in between.
By week 24 I started to feel heavy in the belly and it turned out that my muscles had separated, so I wore a tubi-grip that the midwives at the Family Birth Centre gave me. The tubi-grip was an enormous help, so I kept riding, though the fatigue in my belly was really felt when I was at work for my casual job in retail.
By week 26 I knew something else was going on with excruciating pain in my groin. The GP I had asked unhelpfully offered that it was 'part of the territory'. I never mentioned it again to a GP in that pregnancy and subsequently I found references to a condition called Symphisis Pubis Dysfunction, or SPD. It is a pelvic girdle pain caused by the early loosening of the ligaments in some pregnant women.
I asked the midwives about it and they confirmed my self-diagnosis, giving me tips on how to manage it, as far as they were informed about it. Further internet research led me to the wonderful Pelvic Instability Association of Australia, as it was known then and is now simply PIA (due to increasing awareness that not all pelvic girdle pain, or PGP is due to instability).
At about week 33 I went to a comedy show in town and managed to fracture the ball of my foot from climbing the steps to my seat during loo trips and intermission. As a result, I spent a good 3 to 4 weeks on crutches. I had never used crutches before and I was using them all wrong, which caused upper body problems to boot! The crutches, I realised, also took a lot of weight-bearing from my pelvis and provided relief, even though I had soft tissue bruising under my arms.
Night-time loo trips were painful and, mercifully, we lived in a house with a narrow hallway, so that I could hold onto the walls to get to the loo. Getting myself in and out of the car was painful and going to people's places with stairs or inclines involved turned social occasions into resentment-inducing occasions.
I slept with a pillow between my thighs for side-sleeping and that seemed to help with the pain overnight. Apart from that, all I had was my heat pack and a hospital physio who generally just made things worse for me.
In the days leading up to the birth my pelvis had decided to give me a break and I had other things to concentrate on. We had invested in HypnoBirthing classes and had planned a waterbirth with the FBC midwives.
The birth was glorious and went right to plan. After the birth I was able to walk around and we left for home the next day. I commented that the literature was right, and that the pelvic pain had gone away after the birth.
I was wrong. Not 3 weeks later the familiar tugging returned and I resumed appointments with the hospital physios. After the 3rd appointment, a couple of months later, one of the young physios looked at me sympathetically and said that she had heard that relaxin was the hormone implicated in SPD. She said (and I already knew) that relaxin was present in the body whilst breastfeeding, "so, how long does breastfeeding last...3 or 4 months?". That was my last hospital physio appointment, as I needed a caregiver who was, at the very least, familiar with the World Health Organisation's recommendation to breastfeed for a minimum of 2 years. Breastfeeding got off to a rocky start and I wasn't going to give it up due to not-very-evidence-based advise about relaxin exacerbating my pelvic condition.
When my son was about a year old I asked the question on the Australian Breastfeeding Association's discussion forum and was directed to a good osteopathy clinic near me. I have never looked back and osteopathy has been a part of my life ever since. I already had a myotherapist, but my condition wasn't responding to her modalities and one single osteo treatment had me walking in much more comfort than I had since before the pain had set in.
I started doing yoga again, I was back horse riding (though, with other life commitments now, my riding habit was much-reduced in frequency) and in the pool a lot with baby swim lessons.
Next post: second pregnancy and life in between.
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