Pelvic Girdle Pain (pgp) 19 weeks

[HforHavana]

I'm 19 weeks tomorrow and for a few weeks now I've suffered with what feel like pressure behind my pubic bone. I initially put it down to trapped wind, but after a few weeks it's still not budged. Quick google shows it could be pelvic girdle pain.

It's keeping me awake at night as it hurts every time I turn over. I also get pain during the day when doing simple tasks such as walking upstairs, picking things up etc. The NHS says to contact GP who may refer to physio, but 1. It's near impossible to get through to my GP practice, never mind get an appointment and 2. I can imagine waiting lists for physio to be very long.

Has anyone suffered with this and have any home remedies to ease it. I wouldn't say it was pain but more of a pressure/dull ache type feeling.

You have my sympathy OP. I have it (I’m 33 weeks) and mine also developed at 19 weeks. It’s agony and unfortunately I’ve found it get worse as I got bigger. What you’re describing does sound like PGP and one of the things that it worst for it is walking. Try and reduce walking as much as possible. Until around 27/28 weeks I could cycle without pain but walking really does not help.

NHS Physio takes a while but if you speak to your midwife now she will refer you. In the meantime if you can afford private physio or Osteo I would recommend. You can also try putting a bag of frozen peas on your crotch of an evening – helps to reduce swelling! And make sure you sleep with a pillow between your legs.

I think I might have this, it's at the front in the groin area - is uncomfortable when lying on my side at night (although a pillow between my legs eases it) and over the last couple of days has been a bit uncomfortable when I walk. Definitely manageable at the moment but terrified it will get much worse the further along I get (I am only 18 and a half weeks). I haven't booked in with the GP yet, just keeping an eye to see if it gets any worse.

I've had PGP since 19 weeks as well OP & I can sympathise with you. I got a referral from my midwife for NHS physio & was seen within 2 weeks. I'm now on crutches & have exercises which I do everyday. What I find helps is resting as much as possible, warm baths & gentle exercises. I got an exercise ball that I use everyday & have found that helps.

I can highly recommend the pelvic partnership website, they have fantastic information. I've also made a private appointment for manual therapy as it's supposed to be very effective but the NHS don't seem to offer it. Good luck!

I'm 22 weeks and have been struggling with this since around week 19 too. I ended up calling my midwife for advice initially in floods of tears as it got too much and she's started the physio referral process for me. There's a bit of a wait around here so not hear back yet. She also advised me to look on the pelvic partnership website for helpful hints and ideas and also to speak to an osteopath to check pelvic alignment.

..turns out my pelvic is completely out of alignment and not helping the situation at all so they've started doing small adjustments on a twice weekly basis and I've found it's helped hugely.

Sleeping with a cushion between my knees really helps with me. And really trying to limit how much I go up and down stairs. Hope you find something that helps you

Thanks ladies, il check out the pelvic partnership website as it sounds quite helpful.
Luckily I live in a ground floor apartment and also work on the ground floor of my office so stairs are very limited! Have tried the cushion between legs last night and it did ease it so thankyou!

The only pain I had during my pregnancy was around the 20 weeks mark, the midwife said it couldn't be PGP as I wasn't big enough but I'm pretty sure it was...

The things that helped:

• sleeping with a cushion between my knees
• sitting with my feet up
• I think I had about a week where I did really minimal walking... I also got some compression socks during this time as I was getting foot pain too, and some inserts for my shoes
• yoga specifically for PGP
• drink lots of water and stay hydrated
• got a belly band which I wore for about a fortnight on and off.

Weirdly, when I got much bigger (22-40 weeks), I didn't get any pain at all and didn't need the band at all.

When I got it half way through the pregnancy, I was like 'oh no, surely this can't be it for the rest of the duration...!' But thankfully it did go away and I've had a pain-free pregnancy since then. Fingers crossed it doesn't last too long for you.