Really bad sciatica help/ advice

[futuredreams]

I have the most horrendous sciatica in my left side. It came on about 25 weeks and is making no effort to shift. It's affecting everything I do and I'm completely miserable. Has anyone ever seen a physio for this during pregnancy and had a good result??

If this continues I really don't know how I'm going to cope with birth and this. It's just too much.

Thanks x

I had really bad sciatica for most of my pregnancy, getting worse towards the end. I was signed off work it got so bad. We actually purchased a new firm mattress as the old one was soft, this did help a lot. Also sleeping with pregnancy pillow, doing stretches I found online. When I went for ultrasound they said baby was sitting really low and that was causing a lot of my pains so was encouraged to start using birthing ball early to wiggle him into a different position. Worked temporarily on really bad days. Good news is almost like a switch as soon as I had given birth it was gone. It's been 18 weeks now and I haven't even had a twinge of it since. I know it's awful but just try to be as comfortable as you can and know you haven't much longer to go!

@Babyvibe thank you for your reply! I'm really sorry you had this too. It's so so bad. It's so painful to roll over in bed or lie back. Can I ask did this affect your birth at all? I just can't imagine having this pain on top of Labour, if I move funny it's agony and I'm taking stairs one at a time. It's exhausting.
X

I had preeclampsia and ended up with planned c section so can't really comment on labour pains but I'm sure they will be able to give you something strong for the pain. Talk to your midwife beforehand and have a look into different birthing positions to relieve pain from your back etc this is what I was doing before I found out I had to have csection.

I had awful hip /sciatic pain when pregnant from 16 weeks right through to about 36 weeks. After that I finished work so the absence of a 3 hour commute each day really helped and it eased a lot. Before then I was seeing an osteopath who did an evaluation then did suble manipulation. I think sessions are about £40 so not too bad. Although I wondered what she had done after I'd left each session as it didn't feel much, it did really help to minimise the pain for a good couple of weeks after.

Don't wlrry about the sciatic pain during labour. Labour pain will far outstrip it so you won't even notice even if it is there. As pp said the pain magically vanishes after the baby is out and stops pushing on the nerves.