Sciatica hurt during pregnancy. Pinching and inflammation of the sciatic nerve in a woman during pregnancy: why it pinches in the buttock and back and how to treat

Sciatic pain is typically caused by problems in the lumbar spine, such as a bulging or herniated disc. It can also be caused by bone changes such as narrowing (stenosis) of the spinal canal, osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease, or another condition affecting the spine called spondylolisthesis. These situations can put pressure on the sciatic nerve, causing symptoms.

Pinching of the sciatic nerve during pregnancy due to a herniated disc is not common. But sciatica-like symptoms are quite common during pregnancy. In fact, 50 to 80 percent of women have back pain during pregnancy.

Sciatica symptoms can also be caused by muscle tension and unstable vertebrae. Pelvic bone pain, sacroiliac joint problems, and a condition called piriformis syndrome, which is a problem with one of the muscles in the buttocks, are common causes of sciatic pain during pregnancy. This is due to an increase in pregnancy hormones such as relaxin, which can cause ligaments to weaken and stretch, especially in the pelvic area.

Your baby's weight can also aggravate sacroiliac joint problems or piriformis syndrome because it puts extra pressure on your pelvis and hip joints. Sometimes your baby's position can increase pressure on your sciatic nerve.

Symptoms of sciatica during pregnancy

Inflammation of the sciatic nerve during pregnancy can cause the following symptoms:

• intermittent or constant pain in one buttock or leg;
• pain along the sciatic nerve, radiating from the buttocks to the thigh and foot;
• sharp, shooting or burning pain;
• numbness, colic, or weakness in the affected leg or foot;
• difficulty walking, standing or sitting.

Always call your doctor if you are concerned about pain.

Treatment of sciatica during pregnancy

Pinched sciatic nerves in pregnant women are treated with massage, chiropractic care, and physical therapy. Self-treatment for sciatic nerve problems during pregnancy includes exercises that help stretch the muscles of the legs, buttocks, and thighs to relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve. Some people also find exercises such as swimming helpful. This is because water helps maintain your baby's weight.

Try these five stretches to help relieve joint pain and discomfort during pregnancy.

1. Sitting piriformis stretch

The piriformis muscle is located deep in the buttocks. When it is compressed, it can irritate the sciatic nerve. This seated stretch will help relieve muscle tension and may help reduce sciatic nerve pain.

Necessary equipment: No.

Target muscle: pear-shaped.

1. Sit on a chair with your feet on the floor.
2. If your left side is affected, place your left ankle on your right knee.
3. Keeping your back straight, lean forward until you feel your gluteal muscles stretch.
4. Hold the position for 30 seconds. Repeat throughout the day.

2. Forward Bend Stretch

This exercise helps stretch the muscles in your back, buttocks, and the back of your legs.

Necessary equipment: a table or chair with a backrest.

Target muscles: lower back, gluteal muscles, hamstrings.

1. Standing facing the table (chair), place your feet slightly wider than your hips.
2. Lean forward with your hands on the table (back of the chair). Keep your arms straight and keep your back flat.
3. Keep your hips as far away from the table (back of the chair) as possible until you feel a pleasant stretch in your lower back and the back of your legs.
4. You can also rotate your hips laterally to increase the stretch in your lower back and hips.
5. Hold this position for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Repeat twice a day.

3. Pigeon pose

This popular yoga pose helps relieve pain caused by a pinched nerve during pregnancy. Small changes can help you practice this exercise comfortably during pregnancy.

Necessary equipment: Rolled up towel or yoga block.

Target muscles: hip rotators and hip flexors.

1. Get on all fours on the floor.
2. Move your right knee forward so that it is between your hands.
3. Slide your left leg back and straighten it along its entire length.
4. Place a rolled towel or yoga block under your right thigh. This will make it easier to stretch and give your belly some room.
5. Bend over your right leg. Slowly lower yourself to the ground, using a pillow under your head and your arms for support.
6. Hold for 1 minute. Repeat the exercise, changing legs. Repeat several times throughout the day.

4. Hip flexor stretch

The hip flexors are muscles along the front of the thigh that help propel the leg forward during movement, such as walking. During pregnancy, many women experience tension in these muscles. This can affect pelvic alignment and posture, causing pain.

Necessary equipment: No.

Target muscles: hip flexors.

1. Get on all fours.
2. Place one foot in front of you so that your hip and knee are at a 90-degree angle.
3. Shift your weight forward until you feel a stretch in the front of your back hips and legs.
4. Hold for 30 seconds, then repeat using the other leg.

5. Foam Roller Exercise

A foam roller is an inexpensive thing you can use to massage your muscles. This is a great way to soothe and relax tight muscles that may contribute to increased sciatic nerve pinching pain during pregnancy. The roller acts as a mini massager for tense muscles and connective tissue.

Necessary equipment: foam roller.

Target muscles: hamstrings, calves, glutes, piriformis.

1. Place the foam roller on the floor.
2. Sit on a foam roller, supporting yourself with your arms behind you.
3. Move one leg over the other knee into a figure 4 position.
4. Slowly move your body back and forth over the foam roller until you find the sensitive spot.
5. Continue moving over the sore area for 30-60 seconds.
6. Move slowly over the foam roller until you find another sensitive area. As in step 5, continue for 30-60 seconds.
7. Repeat, switching legs.

Next steps for a pinched nerve in your leg or lower back

An expectant mother may experience pain and discomfort when her sciatic nerve hurts during pregnancy, which is also upsetting and causes additional stress. Exercises for pinched sciatic nerves during pregnancy can relieve pain by reducing muscle tension and increasing mobility in the hips, lower back, and legs. The pain may worsen if you sit or stand for long periods of time. So be sure to change your positions throughout the day.

Listen to your body and stop activities that cause hip pain. Always talk to your doctor before starting an exercise routine. If you have any symptoms, such as dizziness, headaches, or bleeding, stop exercising for back pain and get medical help.

Pregnancy, if desired, is a happy period in a woman’s life. But sometimes there are complications. Acute back pain, tingling and a feeling of numbness in the legs may indicate such an unpleasant phenomenon as a pinched sciatic nerve during pregnancy.

Causes and symptoms

Pinching of the sciatic nerve during pregnancy can most often develop in the second half of pregnancy. The sciatic nerve (one of the largest in the human nervous system) runs in the lumbar region, and the growing uterus puts pressure on it. And when the fetus turns its head down, the sciatic nerve may become pinched.

Pinching of the sciatic nerve during pregnancy most often precludes the use of a traditional set of medications, since in most cases, immediately after childbirth, unpleasant symptoms disappear without a trace.

In addition, the sciatic nerve sometimes becomes inflamed during pregnancy for reasons beyond its control:

• injuries;
• intervertebral hernia;
• inflammatory processes in the joints;
• hypothermia;
• infectious diseases - all this can cause pinching of the sciatic nerve.

A woman learns that a pinching has occurred by severe pain in the back area, radiating to the back of the thigh and leg. The baby's movements become especially active in the third trimester, increasing pain.

The nature of the pain that occurs when the sciatic nerve is pinched during pregnancy manifests itself differently in different women. Pain manifests itself:

• acute attacks, gradually subsiding;
• lumbago, which deprives the pregnant woman of the ability to bend over and straighten up; move without assistance;
• scorching burning sensations;
• rolling, exhausting waves.

In some cases, the inflammation of the sciatic nerve is so severe that the woman is only able to lie down - any movement causes severe attacks of pain.

Risks

If the sciatic nerve is pinched during pregnancy, the woman may panic. The expectant mother understands perfectly well that traditional treatment of the sciatic nerve is contraindicated for her.

But treatment is necessary. All organs of a pregnant woman are especially sensitive and vulnerable, and pinching of the sciatic nerve during pregnancy is not only excruciating pain. Inflammation of the nerve has an adverse effect on the entire musculoskeletal system, which is already under increased stress due to the increase in the body weight of the woman carrying a child and reducing her motor activity.

An inflamed sciatic nerve during pregnancy complicates its normal course, worsens not only the physical but also the emotional state of the woman, pain depresses and suppresses the woman, so treatment should begin as soon as the first signs of the disease appear.

Treatment

Timely consultation with a doctor will help to avoid complications and prevent the disease from becoming chronic. Only a doctor will make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe the correct treatment. Since an inflamed sciatic nerve during pregnancy causes a lot of trouble, treatment is required; it depends on the degree of the disease and has some features.

Considering that not only the condition of the expectant mother, but also the one she is carrying within herself depends on the quality and methods of treatment, in no case should you self-medicate. Traditional and reliable diagnostic methods, such as tomography and radiography, are prohibited from using in cases where the sciatic nerve is pinched during pregnancy - radiation can have a negative effect on the fetus. There is hope for a correct diagnosis and, therefore, correct treatment when it is made by a specialist, and not read on forums on the Internet.

Treatment of sciatica in expectant mothers is specific, because in such cases, one of the main medical principles is especially important - do no harm.

If a woman’s condition is extremely severe, of course, conventional anti-inflammatory and analgesic therapy is used and, in exceptional cases, even surgical treatment.

But most often, treatment is limited to the following measures to combat pinching:

1. A set of exercises aimed at strengthening the back muscles helps relieve inflammation.
2. Manual therapy helps relieve compression of the sciatic nerve and eliminates the discomfort associated with back pain.
3. Massage helps relieve muscle tension. And the weakening of muscle tone, in turn, leads to a decrease in pain.
4. In the early stages of pregnancy (up to 3 months, in later stages the procedure is contraindicated), after mandatory consultation with a doctor, salt baths are taken to relieve pain.
5. Warm compresses on the lumbar area help relieve muscle spasms and reduce pain.
6. Local use of alcohol rubs, ointments and gels helps relieve pain. A neurologist will tell you which of them are safest for a woman and her unborn child.

When the sciatic nerve is pinched, do not forget about such simple but very important things as a flat, hard bed, a comfortable pillow and comfortable shoes with low, stable heels, which can significantly reduce the load on the spine.

Nerve root pinching does not occur very often during pregnancy. Often women mistake pain from fatigue for pinching.

The difference between such unpleasant symptoms and the real problem is that the pain goes away after rest and returns after exercise.

But if the discomfort does not go away, and it becomes more and more difficult to move every day, then we can say that the pregnant woman’s back is really pinched.

Weight gain

The load on the spine during gestation increases not only due to the growing uterus, but also due to the fact that the joints and ligaments of the spinal column and pelvis become softer over time. This leads to pain.

Unpleasant sensations appear after 20 weeks. They are caused by constant pressure on the nerve endings. Such pain occurs in almost all pregnant women.

To relieve pressure and release the nerve in the back, you should wear.

• Get on your knees.
• Rest your elbows and forearms on the floor.
• Stay in this position for a while.

This exercise helps relieve stress on the spine. Should be performed for 20 minutes several times a day. The exercise is completely safe for the baby, but before starting it is better to consult with your doctor. It is possible that a pinched nerve has occurred.

Problem requiring immediate treatment

If a nerve is pinched in the back during pregnancy, immediate treatment is necessary. This occurs because the nerve root is compressed by the intervertebral discs.

Most often, this phenomenon is observed in pregnant women who have previously had similar back problems. And especially often in women with a history of spinal column pathologies.

This condition can be provoked by:

• severe weight gain,
• polyhydramnios,
• swelling,
• multiple pregnancy.

The phenomenon occurs due to weakening of the ligamentous apparatus that supports the spine. As the weight continually increases, the spinal disc can slip out of place and pinch a nerve.

In this case, it can be argued that the pregnant woman has a pinched nerve in her back. Most often this occurs in the lumbar and sacral regions.

Types of problem

The main signs of a pinched sciatic nerve are:

• severe unilateral pain;
• lumbago in the lumbar region, going down to the tailbone;
• discomfort when returning to a standing position from a sitting position;
• muscle weakness.

In pregnant women, this problem can cause problems with bowel movements and urination.

First aid

What to do if your back gets pinched during pregnancy? In this case, it is necessary to relieve the pain syndrome, which can harm the condition of the mother and child.

When a woman is in an interesting situation, she should not take medications without a doctor’s prescription and consultation.

Therefore, the first step is to contact a specialist who will prescribe adequate and safe treatment.

It is better to choose drugs of natural origin that do not penetrate the fetoplacental barrier.

To prevent this condition, you need to do yoga for pregnant women, swimming in the morning and wear a bandage.

All physical activity can be given to the body only with the permission of a doctor and provided that the pregnancy proceeds without any complications.

Denial of responsibility

The information in the articles is for general information purposes only and should not be used for self-diagnosis of health problems or for therapeutic purposes. This article is not a substitute for medical advice from a doctor (neurologist, therapist). Please consult your doctor first to know the exact cause of your health problem.

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The sciatic nerves are the largest nerves in the human body. They are two branches emerging from the pelvic cavity and descending along the back wall of the thigh. Inflammation of this nerve during pregnancy is a fairly common problem. The restructuring of the female body during this period leads to an increased load on the pelvic bones and spine, which results in back pain.

Symptoms of the disease

The main function of the sciatic nerve is sensitivity, therefore, the symptoms of sciatica are based on this factor:

• aching pain in the lumbar region, sometimes “radiating” to the thigh;
• motor activity is impaired due to the appearance of numbness or “pins and needles” in one or both legs;
• in some cases, a sign may be an increase in body temperature;
• In rare cases, loss of bowel and bladder control may occur.

Sciatica during pregnancy is distinguished by one feature - pain always appears on only one side.

Causes of sciatica

Pregnancy is a special time when a woman’s body undergoes a lot of not only external, but also internal changes. The main causes of pinching in this case are directly related to the restructuring of the functions of the female body:

• the uterus increases in size and puts pressure on the internal organs;
• the load on the spine and hip bones increases.

These are the most common causes of the disease. There are a number of other factors that can provoke pregnancy:

• osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine;
• excessive muscle tension in the lumbar spine;
• sexually transmitted infectious diseases;
• mechanical injury to the spine due to a blow or fall;
• abscesses and blood clots;
• diabetes.

When pinched, an inflammatory process occurs, not only nerve fibers are affected, but also blood vessels, which is why it is so important to see a doctor as soon as possible if you have sciatica.

Treatment

The main difficulty during pregnancy is the limited or complete exclusion of the ability to take medications. For this reason, a standard treatment regimen will not work. However, following medical recommendations will help relieve the symptoms that accompany the disease during pregnancy:

1. Maintaining bed rest. The main rule is that the bed should be quite hard.
2. Massage course for pinched sciatic nerve. One of the most effective ways to combat pinching during pregnancy. However, consultation with a doctor is necessary to determine the type of massage for sciatica - classic or manual.
3. Baths with a therapeutic effect. For such procedures, sea salt is used. But baths have time restrictions and are indicated exclusively in the first trimester of pregnancy, because... at later stages can provoke premature birth.
4. Physiotherapy. You can perform physical therapy at home. A number of exercises have been identified specifically for pregnant women that can relieve the symptoms of a pinched sciatic nerve. With their help, the back muscles are strengthened:
   • standing on all fours, bend their back and lower their head; then the back is straightened and the head is raised;
   • stand near the wall, pressing your lower back against it; then they relax and press themselves against the wall again.

   Exercises are performed several times, after consulting with a doctor!

5. Application of rubs. Use alcohol tinctures.
6. Compresses. With their help, blood flow increases and pain is relieved.
7. Wearing comfortable shoes. Pregnant women should choose models with flat soles or heels up to 3 centimeters.
8. Maintaining correct posture reduces muscle tension.
9. in some cases, the Kuznetsov applicator is prescribed for the treatment of sciatica.

For severe pain, drug injections may be prescribed for treatment, but in most cases, non-traditional methods of therapy help relieve the symptoms of sciatica.

Diet

Nutrition for pregnant women is a special issue. Excess weight not only provokes external changes, but can lead to pinching of the sciatic nerve.
Women suffering from sciatica during pregnancy should include in their diet:

• spinach, tomatoes and cucumbers;
• poultry and rabbit meat;
• fish;
• dairy products;
• mushrooms;
• seeds;
• berries;
• citrus.

The consumption of the listed products should be rational so as not to cause allergic reactions.
It is necessary to completely exclude or limit the intake as much as possible:

• coffee;
• sweet;
• flour;
• fat.

In addition, it is necessary to monitor your water balance and drink clean water in the required quantities.

Prevention

Many mechanisms are designed by nature in such a way that humans cannot have any influence on them. So, during pregnancy, the uterus grows, squeezing internal organs and loading the spine, and the entire skeletal system of the body. But a pregnant woman can equip herself with the necessary knowledge to relieve sciatica pain.

It has been noted that it is possible to reduce the frequency of pain attacks due to pinching with the help of regular physical exercise.
Each trimester of pregnancy has its own characteristics. Inflammation of the sciatic nerve most often occurs in the third trimester, when the uterus reaches its largest size and the load on the woman’s body becomes significant. During this period, it is necessary to listen to the recommendations of the doctor monitoring the pregnancy.