Pregnancy, while being a precious period in your life, can bring with it the frustrating problem of hip pain. Here are 8 ways to relieve pregnancy hip pain.
When you are pregnant, the weight gain is distributed unevenly and the hips and lower back have their jobs cut out for them to adjust to this new situation.
As the weight increases, the body also gets ready for delivery by releasing hormones to relax the ligaments that support your joints. While this builds up the flexibility you need to give birth, it can cause extra discomfort when your weight and size increase.
The good news is you can avoid this hip pain by ensuring that you exercise with your doctor’s advice. Besides this there are things you can do to relieve pregnancy hip pain.
Here are eight ways to relieve pregnancy hip pain
1.Sleep position
Find a sleeping position that feels comfortable and supports your hip and pelvic joints can go a long way to relieve pregnancy hip pain. You can do this by lying on your side with a pillow between your knees and another pillow supporting your belly
2.Sit comfortably
Try not to sit with your legs crossed. When you sit, use a rolled up towel or a small cushion to support the arch of your lower back, particularly if you have to sit for long periods. Use a foot rest. Your legs will feel most comfortable when you sit with them spread apart when your belly grows in size.
3.Exercise
Do easy exercises like walking and swimming to make your muscles stronger. This can minimize the pain by helping you get your upper body ready to support the extra weight gain.
Read Exercises for new moms to strengthen neck, shoulder, chest and back
4.Stretch
Stretch your hamstrings, heel cords, piriformis and lower back. These are the ones that tighten when there are changes in posture.
5.Improve strength and flexibility
Enroll in a Pilates or Yoga class for pregnant women. These are exercises that will increase your strength and flexibility.
6.Watch out for pain
Avoid doing anything that can trigger the pain. If there is persistent pain, see your doctor immediately. Some women develop pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy, whose symptoms show through pain and instability in the pelvic region, particularly when performing activities.
7.Support your hips and pelvis
Ask your doctor about a prenatal or sacroiliac belt to stabilize your hips and pelvis. These help a great deal when you start doing weight-bearing exercise especially during the last trimester.
8.Do pelvic floor and abdominal exercises
Check with your doctor about pelvic floor and abdominal exercises to stabilize and support your growing belly. This helps ease the stress off your hips, strengthening your pelvic floor to support the growing uterus. Your strong abs will handle your changes in posture and help relieve pregnancy hip pain.
When you take care of your hips, you’ll enjoy your pregnancy a lot more.
Stay healthy!
5 comments
I have always been curious about pregnancy pain. I am planing to become pregnant and collect the information which is useful for me during pregnancy. I know there are some pain during pregnancy but how to take care of it. I am still searching. You help me lot in this way.
I’ve never been, nor do I ever plan to get pregnant, but I could imagine how exercises like this would be invaluable for dealing with all the extra aches and pains brought on by baring children.
The human body is absolutely fascinating, especially during pregnancy and preparing for childbirth. Stretching is so good even when you’re not pregnant and those pelvic floor exercises are so so important before and after birth.
This is excellent advice for hip pain during pregnancy and I would love to add something that really worked so well for me – body stress release sessions! I really suffered from back pain, pelvic pain and hip pain during pregnancy – especially with my first pregnancy. When I was pregnant with my second baby I started getting those same pains around 7 months and I was not looking for to the last 3 months of pregnancy but I took some advice from another mom and tried body stress release and after one session my pain was gone and stayed away for the rest of my pregnancy. It was incredible! Plus of course it was all natural which is so important during pregnancy.
[…] all those exercises I had learned during […]