Heather Weston
With my first child, I
assumed that my aching
back was par for the
course and suffered
through it. But my "grin
and bear it" attitude
became harder to pull off
during my second
pregnancy, when I was
also carrying my 26pound toddler and tons of
baby gear. A combination
of stretching, exercise, and
my heating pad provided
some relief, but I wish I'd
known more about how to
cut my risk of developing
back pain in the first
place.
It's a common problem:
Between 50 and 80
percent of pregnant
women experience a
backache largely due to
weight gain. Women are
supposed to put on 25 to
Joy feelings magazine
35 pounds during
pregnancy, and nearly half
gain even more than that.
The added weight is
mainly distributed around
the belly, which causes
your center of gravity to
tilt forward. To
compensate for this shift,
many women over-arch
the lower back and round
the upper back and head
forward, which can lead to
back problems.
A second culprit is the
pregnancy hormone
relaxin, which, as the
name implies, relaxes the
ligaments throughout the
body. As pregnancy
progresses, this hormone
helps the pelvis expand to
make more room for the
baby. However, the effects
of relaxin aren't just
limited to the pelvic area.
Ligaments in the spine