During pregnancy, postural changes, muscle imbalances, and altered alignment occur that can lead to issues such as hip pain, swelling in the legs and pelvic area, lower or mid back pain, tingling and numbness in your hands and fingers, and pelvic girdle pain. Pelvic girdle pain is a common presentation that can also present with pain around the front of the pelvis, coccyx pain and pubic pain. A specialist pelvic health physiotherapist can help treat and even treat cure symptoms. Depending on your presentation, your specialist pelvic health physiotherapist might:
- provide manual pelvic physiotherapy therapy treatment and assist you with muscle training
- provide education, taking the time to make sure you understand your prenatal presentation
- educate you on how to exercise the pelvic floor muscles correctly – this may include use of real-time ultrasound
- provide advice regarding specific lifestyle changes
- suggest interventions such as stability support devices to alleviate discomfort
- provide you with prescriptive exercises to alleviate pain and/or prevent the pain from recurring or getting worse