“A new study from Anesthesia: Essays & Research concluded that up to 80% of pregnant women suffer from low back pain. Of those, one in three lost sleep and nearly twice as many limited their physical activity due to pain. To make matters worse, a history of lower back pain doubles the risk of developing pregnancy-related low back pain. Fortunately, almost 75% of women undergoing chiropractic management report significant pain reduction and clinically significant improvements in disability.” Unfortunately, as you just read pregnancy and low back pain tend to go hand in hand, but the good news is that it responds well to treatment including adjustments, manual therapy, and exercise.

Due to the mechanics of pregnancy it is no surprise that there is such a high prevalence of low back pain. As Mom’s belly continues to grow anteriorly it changes her weight distribution and pulls her spine forward which adds strain to the joints, muscles, and ligaments. Then after baby is born and Mom starts breast feeding and carrying baby, the strain continues and can even switch to her upper back and neck. All of this can be significantly helped with conservative care and education on things like posture, exercise, and slight tweaks to daily activities.

Another study found that 40% of untreated women with pregnancy related low back pain continued to suffer 6 months post-partum and 20% further reported pain 3 years later. Further research reported post-partum low back pain responds to spinal manipulation 10 times better than watchful waiting and there has been positive clinical results in pain intensity along with improvement in disability was with just 4 sessions! With numbers like these the obvious conclusion is that chiropractic care is successful in treating both pregnancy related and post-partum low back pain.

In conclusion, pregnancy and post-partum bring with it a high likelihood of low back pain. However, it is treated successfully with chiropractic care while watching and waiting only prolongs pain. Thanks for reading!

Research articles can be found at the following link: https://chiroup.com/4-tools-for-pregnancy-related-lbp/