Pregnancy and SPD
By: Hollie Westall
Tags: Birth, Spd, Children, Babies Babies Babies, Pregnancy

Pregnancy and SPD

SPD – What is it? SPD is also known as Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction and Pelvic Girdle Pain, when your joints become stiff or move because of hormones, SPD can be felt in the pubic region, groin , in the buttocks, hips and even down your thighs. You do not have to have all these symptoms to have SPD, some women only experience light symptoms and some, like me have severe SPD. SPD is something that typically happens later on in pregnancy, however, with both of my pregnancies I had this condition from 22 weeks.

With my son, I collapsed walking on the way home from work with the most excruciating pain around my pubis bone. Of course, like any worrying mum I feared the worse. After a trip to A&E, I discovered this was in fact SPD. The pain is manageable (so I am told) with physio, mild pain relief and support belts. I tried all of these methods and found physio was impossible on NHS and was told that they could give me exercises but beyond that there wasn’t much they could do. The belt helped relieved some of the pain by shifting the weight and pain relief, well you just don’t want to take too much of that whilst your LO is growing.

My daily life became a struggle, with a 4-year-old in tow and a husband with a full time job, I had to try and manage my daily tasks as best as I could. I knew from my previous experience that as the baby grew bigger, the pain would become worse. I struggled with everyday tasks, bending, attempting to get on the floor and play with my daughter, walking, driving a manual car and even taking a bath. Some days I couldn’t even manage to get to the toilet walking, I had to crawl, and attempting to get down the stairs, well some days that was impossible. I spent a lot of time alone, unable to do very much, which of course, left me very teary a lot of the time! I am not ashamed to admit I cried an awful lot during my pregnancy, my SPD was so severe, most days I really didn’t know how to cope!

As any Mum knows, you have complete Mum guilt with your first born, not only was her whole world about to change with a new Brother on the way but now I was unable to play with her or take her to the park as usual. I was grateful that she was able to carry on with her nursery school and play with her friends but the school holidays left me feeling like a bad Mum. I would think to myself, perhaps I should buy her lots of toys or just let her watch lots of YouTube (something of which is more of a treat in our house) but I knew that by doing this I would only be making a rod for my own back.

I decided I had to pull myself together and try anything and everything I could to try and resume daily life. I researched methods of helping and actually found two things that helped me greatly. I found a great Osteotherapist who worked with me and gave helpful advice and even acupuncture to relieve the pressure points. Initially after my sessions, my joints would ache a little more causing the pain to be more prominent, this settled down within a day and I managed to feel some relief and sometime would completely forget I even had SPD! Secondly was a great pregnancy masseuse who worked in my local baby shop called Bababoom, a clothing boutique which also does everything pregnancy related and beyond! My weekly sessions with Keely not only helped me and my muscles relax but helped me sleep, something of which I struggled with a lot due to the pain.

The further on in my pregnancy I began struggling to walk, the pain in my hips became so bad that every step I used to lean to one side to relieve the pain which of course made the posture worse. I managed to purchase a pair of crutches (although I know, not the most attractive look!) which helped maintain my walking ability.

Once my son was born (4 weeks early) I was able to slowly progress with the exercises I had learnt and luckily for me after a week or so the pain subsided. I would recommend for anyone struggling with SPD to try Osteotherapy and even if it is just a treat for you, a good pregnancy massage. SPD is now a much more recognised condition and there is help available. There are other Mums out there in the same positon as you and no matter how you may feel, you are doing a great job!

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