Sciatica during pregnancy turns what should be a happy, exciting time into a time of pain and misery. Pregnancy sciatica symptoms can make sitting or lying down unbearable and standing even worse! Back Pain, weakness, pins-and-needles and numbness can occur anywhere from the lower back down to the feet, which is the entire length of the sciatic nerve.
You want pain relief – and you need it to be natural and safe for women’s health. Discover chiropractic. Learn about this 100% natural approach to sciatic pregnancy relief that’s safe–whether you’re pregnant or not.
Chiropractic: A Safe, Drug-Free Solution to Your Pain
Chiropractic is a drug-free alternative to the mainstream medical model – and it’s totally safe during pregnancy. In fact, chiropractic has emerged as the leading alternative medical approach in the world, due to the fact that chiropractic is a non-invasive and effective way to address the underlying issues, rather than just treating symptoms.
Many insurance companies cover chiropractic care. And millions of highly satisfied patients can attest to chiropractic’s effectiveness. Obviously, no particular outcome can be guaranteed; some patients experience relief from their sciatica in just a few visits, others find they need regular fine-tuning to keep their spinal instabilities in check.
Sciatic Nerve Pain During Pregnancy: What Exactly Is It?
Sciatica is a set of symptoms that arise when the sciatic nerve is disturbed in some way – usually by being compressed by some bony spinal element. However, sciatica is not a diagnosis of what the underlying problem is. That could be any number of things that interfere with the nerve roots or press directly on them, including:
· Disc decay or degeneration
· Disc herniation (bulging)
· Narrowing of the spinal canal
· Arthritic bone spurs
· Trauma
When sciatic nerve pain during pregnancy occurs, women often jump to the conclusion that the baby is pressing on the sciatic nerve (along with the bladder and everything else)! While this may occur, it is much more likely that a disc injury is causing your case of sciatica.
Sciatica and Pregnancy
What often happens is that many years (or an entire lifetime) of unhealthy posture, underdeveloped muscles, too much sitting or standing, or improper lifting techniques creates disc degeneration and damage. For a long time, the body adapts to these problems. Eventually, however, the body reaches its limit and sciatica symptoms finally appear.
Sciatic and pregnancy go together for many women simply because the additional stress of carrying the baby is what pushes the body beyond its ability to adapt. Those underlying disc injuries are exacerbated by the weight and posture of pregnancy, resulting in sciatic nerve disturbance and sciatica pain, either in the back, the buttocks or the legs. Clearly, the traditional approach to sciatica pain relief — powerful drugs – is not an option while you’re pregnant. But there is another alternative.
Traditional Sciatica Treatment
Traditional approaches to treating sciatica focus on reducing the pain; in other words, they treat the symptoms, not the cause. Temporary sciatica pain relief can be obtained with the use of anti-inflammatories, anti-convulsants, anti-depressants, muscle relaxants and even narcotics. Most of these medications are not considered safe to take during pregnancy.
Other traditional sciatic treatments include epidural steroid injections, surgery and sciatica exercises. Whether these treatments are indicated during pregnancy is debatable and the fact remains that none of the traditional sciatica treatment options addresses the underlying cause of the symptoms. Fortunately, chiropractic care can often ease sciatica pain and correct the underlying problem.
Credit: Choose Natural