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SPD not settled 4 months after birth - what should I do?

9 replies

SpanielFace · 02/01/2013 14:10

I suffered with SPD during my pregnancy (my 1st) - it was never severe compared to some of the horror stories you hear, but I found it very difficult to walk any distance at all (e.g. around the supermarket), and was in a lot of pain at night in bed whenever I rolled over. I saw an NHS physio at 26 weeks who I felt was pretty useless - she didn't even examine me and gave me a photocopied sheet of exercises to do, mostly pelvic floor and lower abdominal, which I did throughout the rest of pregnancy. I was also very careful with posture etc. DS was born by emergency CS, and is now 17 weeks old.

My symptoms have never 100% settled. They're far better than they were during pregnancy, but rolling over in bed, and walking any distance, are still uncomfortable and at times painful. We have a dog who needs a lot of exercise - before pregnancy I would usually walk 4 miles a day with her, now I can hardly manage a mile, although that isn't helped by the fact a) I am about 3 stone overweight - 2 stone of baby weight and a stone I had before! and b) I tend to be carrying a 12lb baby in a sling when I'm out walking.

I'm reluctant to go back to the NHS physio, as I felt they were fairly useless (my general experience of our local NHS physio department has always been that they just want you out the door as soon as they can). Plus I'm still doing the exercises (although not as regularly, I must admit) so is there anything else they can do?Is it worth paying for a private physio? Would some form of manipulation help at all? I'm worried as we had planned on starting to TTC when DS is a year old, which is only 8 months away - if it hasn't settled by then, how much worse will it be in my next pregnancy? I am in a fairly physical job and really struggled with work last time.

OP posts:
crookedcrock · 02/01/2013 15:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bigbuttons · 02/01/2013 17:15

Bowen technique. I have 6 dc. I am small famed and had (for me) large babies 8-9 lbers with great fat heads, so pelvis was buggered. Had spd with all, getting increasingly bad each time. Bowen was the only thing that made any difference at all and certainly the only thing that allowed me to walk and eventually recover.

greeneyed · 02/01/2013 19:39

Mine took over a year but I'm okay now - did go back to NHS physio was rubbish at doing exercise but eventually it just got better

landofsoapandglory · 02/01/2013 19:45

I have horrific SPD that has never settled, DS2 is 16 now. I am an extreme case though and have had a lot of surgeries etc.

I agree with crookedcrock, contact the pelvicpartnership, they should be able to put you in contact with an osteopath or specialist physio in your area. I had a brilliant osteopath, but my pelvis was so unstable each time he manipulated it back in, it would fall back out of place again.

Good luck.

IwishyouaMerryChristmas · 02/01/2013 19:50

Mine didn't settle well for over a year. Physio helped a lot but I needed 2 lots of steroid injections to really get it to settle.

If you're in Cardiff I can recommend a good physio.

SpanielFace · 03/01/2013 09:04

Thanks everyone. I'm going to start by going back to the NHS physio to see if there's anything further they can do, but if not I'll look for a private one - probably through pelvic partnership, but if anyone reading this is around Lincoln & knows of anyone good, let me know. (That's miles from Cardiff, unfortunately!)

Bigbuttons, I don't really know what the Bowen technique is - what does it involve?

OP posts:
Shattereddreams · 03/01/2013 09:15

You can see a musculoskeletal Physio now, you would have seen a women's health one before.

So make sure this is the discipline you ask for in NHS. You will need to do lots of exercises and they will be v tough and improvement feels minimal and despondent!

By all means pay for one, go to csp.org.uk to find one near you.
Try some Pilates perhaps.
Simple things like dont sit on the floor, don't change baby on the floor ever will help.

bigbuttons · 03/01/2013 10:53

It involves very gentle 'manipulation' ,if you can call it that, through clothing. Google it, it works. The nhs physio won't help you.

ThreeBeeOneGee · 05/01/2013 14:25

Mine got better once twins were born but then came back when they were about six and has been with me ever since. I started Pilates and this has helped a lot.

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