PGP - tips to help a miserable pregnant woman

[DontKnow1988]

Posting for traffic. I'm 25/26 weeks pregnant and have had PGP since week 15.

I have a physio but it's not helping - she massages and releases the pain and I feel great for 3 hours, after which the pain comes back 100x worse and I can't walk or go to work for 2 days. I wfh 3 days a week so that's not an issue (except I hate WFH). Physio is meant to specialise in women's health so I don't know if there is just nothing else they can do for me.

I love walking but it makes it worse.

Swimming is OK for short bits but that's more for exercise- I don't know if it releases the pain (also, it's a faff, I can't do it every day, i have a FT job).

Warm baths and massaging my glutes with a massage gun help for about 10-20 mins, then pain comes back as badly as before.

Sitting is agony. My tailbone is killing me. Sitting on an exercise ball helps a tiny bit.

Sleeping was ok until 2 nights ago and now I have pain lying down too, which has pushed me over the edge mentally.

My ob gyn just reminds me I am allowed to take paracetamol.

I am losing my mind. I went for a short walk yesterday with DH and I was mentally trying to pick a car to jump in front of as I want this to end - I have never been in this much pain in my life.

You need these lovely people: https://pelvicpartnership.org.uk/

Was also going to recommend pelvic partnership. I’ve also had success with osteopath treatment

Also have you got a wrap or support brace? And trying different pregnancy pillows etc and different mattresses for sleeping?

A serola belt helped me and a full body pillow - a big U- shaped one.

It’s depressing as fuck. I could only sleep sitting up in a kind of nest on the sofa by the end.

A belt/pregnancy pillow never helped me. But everyone is different

Please tell me you aren't attempting breaststroke kicks?

I assume your physio has told you all the obvious, no ironing, no hoovering, plastic bag on your carseat (they work as a lazy susie, spin your legs into the car) etc

@Needanewname42 yes, no breastroke, I figured that one out on my own pretty quickly.

Why no ironing? I do minimal ironing anyway tbf. And confused on the plastic bag, is it just to help you turn around so you don't get out the car one leg at a time?

Use a recommended osteopath on the pelvic partnership website.

But I will say, if it's very bad pgp, you may not find much of anything cures it, only helps stave it off a bit. My last pregnancy i was on crutches and almost completely housebound by the end...took me 12 months of continuous osteo treatment and excercises and blah blah blah before I was 70% better. 2 years post partum and I still have some issues 😔

You need to rest.

Swimming breaststroke isn’t good for your pelvis, neither is walking. When you go up the stairs you need to go one step at a time. When you get in the car, you need to do it as if you’re wearing the shortest skirt imaginable. No hoovering, no pushing any heavy shopping trollies.

A belt might help, it never helped me. A long body pillow helps. You might find crutches useful so maybe talk to your physio about that. I find acupuncture helpful, but I’m not pregnant however I do know you can have acupuncture in pregnancy.

The Pelvic Partnership is a good shout. A lot of NHS physios don’t know how to deal with PGP ime.

Absolutely hear you op! I had it and it was awful.

Basically you can't do anything that involves opening your legs even a little. And no long walks or stands. I used a support to lift my bump a bit and reduced my driving as that was a big flare. I had nhs physio - it was so awful. They basically just offered me crutches. And then went for private which was better although it didn't completely alleviate it. I second the plastic bag, you lift both feet and swivel with knees together, the bag just stops friction so you can spin easier. It's an absolute pita and really I found that managing it and not overdoing it was the only way to get through. It's so easy to make it worse without knowing you're doing it at the time so knees together needs to be your new mantra.

Rest rest rest

don’t stand on one leg. Even when getting dressed - sit down to put clothes on.

I still have pain and problems with my pelvis - and my daughter is 18 months old. Every time I stand doing the washing up I have to make myself stand evenly on both feet.

support Velcro strapping helped a bit. And a bbhugme pregnancy pillow. Which I still use every night I love it so much.

i feel for you - it’s very painful.

Do you have a standing desk for WFH? That helped me, I'd do 15 mins stand and sit alternately as each hurt in different ways.
Electric heat pad over hips at night or on sofa in evening, or given you WFH could do then too I suppose.
Tbh I found 15 or 30mg codeine the most useful which was prescribed to me by antenatal day unit obstetrician once when I cried my eyes out in pain. I didn't use it much as I couldn't safely drive or work on it but it was a relief at the end of a day and just made my whole body relax which I think psychologically helped as well as actually relieving the pain.
Sympathies though, it was nightmarish. Surprisingly mine did improve by about 35 weeks which I think was down to the exercises from women's health physio. I never had or was suggested any kind of massage.

@TheFairyCaravan honestly, it feels like all I do is rest! I gave up exercising at week 15, been too scared to go to the gym. The swimming 2-3 times a week is all I do plus a 15-20 min walk. That's it, nothing else, and it's making my mental health take a nose dive.

I tried pregnancy pilates, paid a small fortune for it, and the instructor was shit. 70% of the exercises involved single leg exercises which are terrible in pregnancy so I think she had zero clue what she was doing.@

Ironing, and hoovering you end up swinging your body around on your hips. Not good for the pelvis.

The bag in the car good description above, you need to keep your knees together, sit bum first and swing legs in together. The bag helps your bum rotate in the seat.
Same getting out, spin both legs out the car knees together then stand up.

I got a kneeling chair off eBay, helped take some of the pressure off my tailbone when sitting.

But massive sympathies OP, it's horrible and the only thing that really helps is having the baby. (Eventually.)

I sat on a gym ball at my desk which I found really helped. I don't think my pain was anywhere near your level but I feel so bad for you I just want to throw ideas your way.

@HiCandles I do have a standing desk at work, and I do use for short bursts, can handle about 10-15 mins at a time.

Oh good god. I hadn't realized the PGP can continue post- pregnancy. I can't handle that information right now.

Another vote for the Serola belt, its the one physios recommend, and it helped so much, but you have to wear it low over your lower bottom. I went from hardly being able to walk, to walking up hills and being pretty much pain free. Sleeping with a thin pillow between my legs also helped
Antenatal aquarobics and pelvic floor exercises were also useful

Trust me, you can’t go for a 15-20 minute walk. I know what I’m talking about. I’ve had PGP since 1996, I’m a rare case but we do exist. I was bed bound by 26 weeks with DS2 because I couldn’t walk at all. I was induced at 36 weeks, it failed, and he was born naturally at 37 weeks.

My pelvis is shot and is held together with metal at the back and the front. I still can’t walk unaided, and can’t work.

To be fair I think my pelvis is fucked from my first pregnancy and birth - which ended in failed forceps and an emergency c-section. It’s never been the same since.

i think for most PGP resolves after you’ve evacuated the bebe

@TheFairyCaravan I'm so sorry. That is awful. I've been treating it as an annoyance until recently but it's really hitting me now. I feel like no one is treating it as real, if that makes sense.

It can (and mine has a little) but personally about 80% went immediately. I was more mobile and in less pain 48 hours after my sections then in many months. Another 15% gradually went over the process of a few months, and 7 and 5 years it's not gone, but it's only noticeable if I cross my legs or if I'm on my feet all day sometimes. I have flare ups before periods, but they are mild enough to be nipped in the bud by ibuprofen.

I had it from 9 weeks and 4 weeks respectively. Nothing helped for me, but the cocodamol I was prescribed took the edge off (i took it 3-4 times a day in the second trimester and until 2 weeks before birth). I was still pretty much housebound by the end, walking with 2 sticks etc.

The good thing is that after bad PGP, having a small baby instead is an absolute joy 🥰

OP, if it doesn't go away after pregnancy I recommend going private and getting prolotherapy. It's the only thing that properly fixed my PGP.

I had the same as you, it would feel better for a short period after the physio had manually adjusted me, but then the pain and imbalances would always come back within a few days.

I'd also recommend seeing a physio post pregnancy.

For me PGP kicked off after a swim session at around 20 weeks and with zero clue I did everything wrong for the next week to the point I could hardly move across the office.
Saw a maternity physio. And followed her advice to the letter. It did settle I could move but was super careful - I'd be really sore the next day if I wasn't.

For me it did settle after the birth and hormones got back to normal. Other than the occasional twinge which I think was cycle related, which went on for a while.

I had nowhere near the same issue with DC2 as I did DC1. At around 12/13 weeks, I'd carried my 5yo with a minor injury, a short distance. My pelvis was niggling after that. But I remember everything the physio said and was no where near as bad the first time. I wondered if it was different sex, different hormones but both the same.