How can you relieve pain naturally while pregnant?

In my adult life, I’ve always been a little medication adverse. It likely stems from taking medication regularly for years as a kid for seizures. I needed that medication, and thanks to some heavy disguises from my parents in the form of pudding and yogurt, I took it, but it’s made me wary of any of the optional medications since then. Stuffy nose? I’m good. Upset stomach? I can tough it out. Headache? Dry needling, please. That’s just me.

When I was pregnant, some well-meaning people would warn me about medications not to take based off whatever was circulating at the time. I’d politely thank them and chuckle to myself, thinking, “Yeah I’ve never taken that particular medication be

fore and don’t really feel like now is the time to start.” When you are pregnant, though, you also start to feel new pains from sheer size but also the joint laxity (thanks hormones!) that accompanies growing a baby. So in light of the of the most recent news/research/opinion/anecdotes circulating out there (I am not here to take a stand on that. Plus, as a PT, I can’t prescribe or advise on medication, so you should go talk to your OB or midwife.), I know there’s a whole group of pregnant women out there who are wondering if there is an option somewhere between being in a lot of pain and ingesting medications regularly. Top that I say: Read on!

Dirt Road Dust Up

When I was in my second trimester, I was feeling great! Then I went to visit my sister in Georgia, and we went for an easy 3 mile run together on a dirt road. (Yes, the country songs are true, and dirt roads are very much still a thing in the South.) I should have stretched afterward, but instead we stood talking in the yard. I went to walk back into the house, and…I couldn’t. That’s right. I couldn’t put weight on my right leg. Ooof. The dreaded SI joint pain had set in instantly and without warning. So what did I do?

Physical Therapy to the Rescue!

I found my local PT. That’s to say, my sister went into the house and forced my husband out of vacation mode and into his professional persona, Dr. Colton. In my particular case, my hips had shifted due to pounding on an uneven road combined with loose pregnancy joints. It had instantly created inflammation in the SI joint in my lower back and also made all of my back and hip muscles super tight from guarding to protect the inflamed joint.

Dry needling was key to getting my muscles to calm down. Sometimes muscles that are locked in spasm, as in my case, do not respond well to stretching. They almost see stretching as a threat and can tighten more. Getting into a position to foam roll wasn’t feasible due to pain. Other hands-on techniques such as massage or cupping felt nice but failed to result in lasting relief. Since dry needles go into the muscle, it was the best technique for getting my muscles to loosen up from the inside out, resulting in lasting relief without my muscles feeling under attack. Dry needling calmed my muscles enough to allow me to self-manage the pain, meaning that I was then able to gently stretch as well as get into positions to foam roll.

Once the muscles calmed down, we were able to affect the actual joint position. Physical Therapists are not chiropractors, but the three of us PTs at 212 are all trained in assessing joint position and techniques to restore optimal mechanics.

From there, I needed to do a lot of strengthening. Stretching felt good, but the only way I was going to keep this pain at bay was to get my back, pelvic, and abdominal stabilizing muscles to activate. Oftentimes when our body goes through an injury and cycle of inflammation, our muscles sort of shut down. I needed specific exercises to get these muscles firing again and to stabilize and protect my SI joint that was still a little on edge from injury and continually challenged due to my growing size.

I hear frequently of women who have something flare-up mid-pregnancy and were resigned to the fact that they would have to deal with it until they delivered the baby. This doesn’t have to be the case. In fact, it shouldn’t be the case. Mine wasn’t a one-treatment fix. (Typically, nothing that achieves lasting results is.) It took diligent work with PT and on my own at home over the course of about 4 weeks, but I am happy to report that I was eventually pain-free and back to running regularly for the remainder of my pregnancy. And guess what? Everything I did was simply using my body’s natural processes to heal. No external pain relievers necessary.

Pro Tip

Oh, and if you made it this far and aren’t pregnant, I’ll give you another little fact: You don’t have to be pregnant to get lasting pain-relief, naturally. Physical Therapy is a pain reliever for everyone!