No Morning Sickness? Check for Lower Back Pain
Posted on Apr 24, 2012 | Blog Posts, Pregnancy Health Category | | Print This Article
Lower back pain is a common sign of pregnancy. To be sure, it’s not the most common sign of pregnancy by any means. It’s also not especially common as a sign in pregnancy during the very early stages of pregnancy. If you’re looking for pregnancy symptoms, you’re better off looking at things such as morning sickness. Of course, the most reliable sign of pregnancy is a missed period, but even then there are a number of things beyond pregnancy that can cause you to miss a period.
So, simply having lower back pain isn’t a reliable way to tell whether or not you’re pregnant, of course. If that lower back pain is accompanied by morning sickness, breast tenderness and coincides with a missed period, then it’s much more likely a sign of pregnancy.
All of that said, around half of pregnant women experience back pain in the lower back during pregnancy. There are a couple of reasons for this.
During early pregnancy, lower back pain is more often than not caused by the way that your hormones are changing. Progesterone in particular is a hormone that can cause issues with your back. This hormone causes the ligaments and discs in your back to soften. These are the discs and ligaments that your body uses to support your upper body, and when they soften you may have muscle spasms or lower back pain.
Another common cause of lower back pain during pregnancy can be a urinary tract infection. Because of this, it’s important to talk to your doctor about your lower back pain during pregnancy.
In later pregnancy, of course, lower back pain is caused by something else: your growing baby. As your baby gets bigger and your belly expands, your center of gravity changes. You can get some relief from this pain with things like back-strengthening exercises, including mini crunches and pelvic rocking. Getting enough sleep as well as paying attention to your posture can help reduce the amount of lower back pain during pregnancy, as well.
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