clara I suffer with sciatica as a side effect of a slipped disc a few years again. Typically the pain is off and on. Last pregnancy from around 16 weeks I had constant pain which the only way to ease even slightly was stretching exercises. I googled a lot and found two that helped a little. I used to do them when in most pain and just before bed. Sleeping was really difficult as when laying down it hurt the most. A long pregnancy pillow was a life saver. It didn’t help the pain but definitely didn’t make it worse (which sleeping without the pillow did).
As you say paracetamol is useless so I didn’t even regularly take that.
I’m worried the constant pain will kick in earlier this time. But so far I’ve just got the usual good days and bad days symptoms. SO fingers crossed it’ll stay away a little while longer yet.
Last time I also suffered with quite bad SPD. I could still work, but was on crutches. It really limited the amount of walking I could do, which really made the sciatica worse. As you say – exercise it what helps. Post labour my hamstring was extremely tight and so I had quite a lot of work (chiropractor and deep tissue massage – ouch) to try and address it.
Definitely mention it to your mw. Though I have to say mine was useless. They did eventually refer me to the physio department at the hospital but they were equally useless.