Upper back pain during pregnancy
Back pain during pregnancy is very common. The main reason is that the growing child also causes a weight redistribution of the woman’s body. The pregnant woman takes, in order to be able to lift the increasing child weight, first completely unusual attitudes when sitting and going.
Since the muscles often cannot adjust to such new postures so quickly, cramps or hardening of the muscles in the area of the spine can occur very quickly, which are then perceived as pain. Mild pain in the area of the back in pregnant women can be treated well with heat pads or massages. Some pregnant women also put a supporting, slightly adjusted corset around the abdomen.
In principle, pregnant women can perform the same back muscle exercises as non-pregnant women. However, it should be noted that these exercises tend to have a long-term effect, i.e. you have to do the back exercises regularly for many weeks before the muscles have trained. However, the pregnancy-related back pain disappears after the birth of the child.
If the pain in the spinal column is unquenchable, pain medication approved for pregnancy can also be used. Paracetamol should be mentioned here first and foremost. Here a reduced dose, e.g. 250 mg twice daily for 3 days, can relieve the pain if other measures do not help.
The child should not take ibuprofen or diclofenac. Very severe back pain during pregnancy, which does not respond to pain-relieving medication and cannot be relieved, should also be examined by an orthopedist. In some cases, a herniated disc may have occurred during pregnancy and should be treated.
Whether such an operation should take place before or after the birth of the child depends on the severity of the herniated disc. Recently, acupuncture techniques have become widely accepted for the treatment of back pain as a whole, but also for the treatment of back pain in pregnant women.
