Looking after your back during pregnancy

As many as 50 - 80 percent of women get back pain sometime during their pregnancy. Back pain is common but not normal and usually occurs due to a pre-existing condition which does not allow the body to adapt to its new pregnancy posture.

As the baby develops, the increase in weight and volume at the front of your body gradually shifts your centre of gravity forward, causing greater strain on the long muscles in your back. They need to work harder to keep you upright. The lumbar spine also needs to curve more than normal to adapt to the pregnancy. If there is a pre-existing problem in the lumbar spine, this adaptation may fail to happen and symptoms arise. In the thoracic spine in the middle of the back, the curve also increases as your breasts and abdomen become heavier. This curvature can cause pain in the shoulders and neck area, especially among women who spend a lot of time sitting at a computer.

During the third trimester, increased levels of the hormone relaxin soften the ligaments and joints, mostly in the pelvis. This loosening helps prepare the body for labour but it also decreases the mother's overall stability. Some women experience pain in the sacroiliac joints at the back of the pelvis, others in the pubic symphysis, a patch of fibrocartilaginous tissue and ligaments connecting the pelvis in the front. Pubic symphysis pain, in particular, can be debilitating but is often helped by osteopathy.

Back pain exercises:

• Keeping the legs and arms straight hold onto the side of the sink and bend over as far as possible. You should feel the stretch in the back and down the legs. Turn your toes in and heels out to open up the pelvis.
• Later in pregnancy stand against a wall and push the small of the back into the wall - this will open up the joints in the lower and mid back.