5 months after birth, still suffering from SPD

[ButterPie]

Just with certain movements, but, for example I bathed the children tonight and sat on the floor to dry them and I am still in pain (not severe, but definitely there, enough to make me hold the baby differently) an hour later.

Is that normal? Can I do anything? I hate that if I go shopping or to the park I have to take the next day to recover.

Hi, I am only 6 weeks after birth and been seeing a womans health physio on nhs who advised me to take it easy and not to expect to be fully back to normal for at least a year Its quite depressing to be honest as for most of my pregnancy I was housebound, and remain so now.
I think we still have to be careful of movements and try to still follow the advice during pregnancy, no heavy lifting - keeps legs together getting in and out of car etc
Have you found any improvement in your symptoms since giving birth? I have, but (I know its only 6 weeks) it's slow progress. The physio advised me that I have a misalignment in my pelvis and she is correcting that for me - but I have to do exercises to strengthen my core as I have an 8 finger diastasis in my abs and this means no support for pelvis either. Once the relaxin hormone starts to leave - around 6months I think, then maybe I will see a marked improvement?
But, to answer I am not sure that there is anything that can be done to speed up recovery other than be careful and don't over do it. I have asked if anything I can do will make it better and the answer was no - just be contented........

what indigo said - if it doesn't start to improve after 6mo, then see your GP and try and get a physio referral. I did just this, and they took me seriously.

Remember to follow the same advice re SPS in pregnancy (no shopping trolleys/cleaning baths/hoovering etc) esp try to avoid carrying your DC in the car seat - that really aggravated my SPD.

My SPD lasted for aaages, only thing that actually helped were core stability exercises to help my posture, along with losing a bit of weight (never really managed to shift the baby weight and still haven't

Hope me going into far too much detail has helped

SPD, not SPS, obv. Sorry

I was going to post this, dd is 10 months and its still there, no where near as bad but as bad as it was at the begining. It gets a lot worse when af is due as well.

My job makes it hard as well, it involves a lot of lifting and sitting on the floor, so its got worse since I went back to work. I think Im going to have to go to the doctors.

I found the worst thing by far to aggravate it was sitting cross-legged on the floor, which unfortunately you do far too much of when you have a LO.

Pilates. I'll say it again, pilates pilates pilates. If you can afford a private teacher for a few one-on-one sessions, it'll change your life.

Otherwise/ also, try some strengthening exercises eg. swimming crawl, squeezing a pillow between your knees, practising strengthening your pelvic floor muscles etc. And, I regret to say, losing weight. Wearing trainers as much as possible, not heels. No running and especially no running up hills.

Are you bf? Mine got much better when I stopped. I don't think I am meant to say that aloud, but it is my personal experience.

thanks Jareth how are you doing with your spd now?
domesticslattern thanks to you too think I will try pilates once I can actually lie on my side. Have you been able to recover from SPD?
When you say no running - do you mean once SPD has calmed down? I only ask as I was a runner before all of this pg malarkey started, and hope to - one day - get back to it. What are the chances do you think??

I am bf. I have to push the double buggy, lift the kids, etc or I would be housebound

I though pilates/yoga was out of the question?

oh butterpie I really feel for you. I'm on my first child so I have no idea how on earth you are coping. I send hugs x I read that some yoga/pilates moves were not be carried out, but TBH if others have experience that it has helped then once I feel a bit more able then I would try anything to get back to some kind of normal.

Get thee to a chiropractor. I went in on crutches about six month post delivery and walked out carrying them. Backed up with physio it helped massively.

It was no miracle cure by any means but definitely helped more than anything else had. I still continued to use my crutches but was not as dependant.

God it's awful isn't it.

Pilates is about gentle strengthening of your core muscles, which will help to strengthen the area which is giving you this SPD. While I wouldn't advocate steaming full pelt into your local class of 25 people and joining in enthusiastically at the back, I would recommend a one to one pilates teacher. Many have good experience of dealing with SPD, and will help you with gentle, very precise exercises which strengthen the area without aggravating it eg. with split or cross-over leg work.

They will also work with you if you have other issues which are compounding your pelvic problems- I went in to recover from my SPD but ended up doing a lot of work on my shoulder girdle, which was weak, so that was causing problems further down my body IYSWIM.

I had such terrible SPD with number one that I swore never again, but I am much better now 2 yrs on - even barely any twinges thank god, though some delightful crunching when I roll over in bed- and I put a lot of that down to the pilates. No, I put all of it down to pilates. And time.

Indigo re. the running, presumably you'll just have to try it gently and see what happens? I did give myself problems doing hill sprints a few weeks ago. Once an area is buggered, it's best to listen really carefully to what your body is telling you.

Wouldn't private tuition cost loads? I wonder if my local coucil leisure centre offers it as part of it's low income discount scheme?

The cheapest I can find it is £30 a session. That is too much for me, I only have £20 a week for "luxuries" (and it would appear that not being in pain is a luxury )

butterpie, looks like you might have to forgo luxuries and save up your 20 pounds a week until you can get to a few sessions, sounds like a good idea even just to try. I am going to look in my area to and see whats going on.

Domesticslattern are you saying delightful crunching of your pubic symphysis joint?

sorry to say but dispite my SBIL being a chiropractor and having plenty of free sessions i still have days where i can not move and my DH has to stay home this is over 2 yrs on from birth.
ive kind of accepted that its just going to be this way for the forseable future, although it still gets me down now and then.

I am overweight,, which doesn't help, and my oestopath has said that it will be better once i lose some, but ive always needed to exercise a lot to lose even the slightest amount and this makes my SPD worse, so have no idea how much longer it will take to go.

sympathies

x

Evening Mums

Just been reading your posts above. I run FITNESS FOR MUMMIES and I have worked as a post natal exercise specialist for over 10 years. Many women suffer with SPD and core exercise / pilates will definatly help. Please make sure you see a qualified post natal instructor. Even if you can only afford just a couple of 1-1 sessions to gain guidance and infomation it would definatly be woth while.

I have attached some links that you may find useful.

://www.pelvicpartnership.org.uk/

www.postnatalexercise.co.uk/

www.fitnessformummies.co.uk

P.S.PLEVIC FLOOR exercises are for life not just for pregnancy! you can do them anywhere any time!!

Hope this helps

Vicky x

Hi there.

I was on crutches with spd in my first pregnancy and had pretty much accepted I was going to be in pain for the rest of my life.

However, I had a physio who was qualified in pilates by the appi and she was brilliant - gave me loads of really gentle exercises to do and gradually built up.

Have just had 2nd little girl and managed to stay off the crutches thanks to my now strong core and to the physio at my local nhs hospital and continued exercises. She's specially qualified in womens health and gently realigned my back which was clearly exacerbating the problem.

All in all, I'm so much better now than I thought I could be so all is not lost! Pilates pilates pilates! I got a pilates for mums due off amazon to keep me going once I'd mastered the basics.

Good luck

I have a really big concern..... I was disgnosed with SPD within my first trimester needless to say it was a horrible agonny pregnancy. walking, dressing myself, showers, sleeping, sitting, stairs, cars, using the bathroom. my entire physical ability was next to none without breaking out in a sweat from pain. Unfortunatly, my Dr. only diagnosed me, never givng me alternate therapy options, just a belt from babies R us.
FASTFOWARD.... postpartum> 3-4 months I felt like a great again. So I did alot of heavy lifting and am now suffering from Right SI Joint pain, it's bad. I know it's due to the entie day of heavy lifting. can anyone relate to this post? Anyone???

ladyinpain Yes, me I can totally relate. I just read the previous history and I see I'm on this thread too :) My son is now 16 months and I have to tell you that for all this time I have been recovering. I have had to take it easy - ie no lifting, not doing too much driving, only walking if I really really had to etc etc I took extended maternity leave from work as I wasn't fit enough and in great pain every day.
One thing that helped me was limiting my every movement.So, if I needed to get anything from upstairs- I would ensure I took it downstairs that morning to stop me from having to go up again. Also, resting is very very important. I know this isn't easy, but rest when you can, and never ever push yourself - it just doesn't help at all.
I think it would help you to see a physio who has knowledge of pelvic girdle pain - my physio was re-aligning my hips to try and re-align my SI joints, and also my pubis symphysis joint. This took almost a year.
After a year of physio and some exercises to get my tummy stronger, I felt stronger and not in as much pain - but this was achieve by resting too. No lifting, no walking etc etc.
When my son was 13 months old I found a physical therapy called 'rolfing - structural integration' this has changed my life. Almost immediately I had relief, it was amazing, it is amazing. I sincerely believe that hormones are to blame for all of the pain during and after my pregnancy. My rib cage was still very large even 11 months after my son was born. It took that long to go back down again. So, I didn't mean this post to be so long, but I wanted to tell you to go easy on yourself. Your body has to come back itself and it can take time. I also saw a surgeon who advised that the joints become very very inflamed and resting is one of the only ways to get everything to calm down again. Exercising makes it all worse.
I wanted to give you hope by this post, and to say I hope this helps somehow.