My pregnant wife cant walk/go out

[Hdfpdj24]

My wife is 21 weeks pregnant now with twins. For the past few months, she's really been struggling to walk more than 5 mins (she passed out because of low blood pressure once). We're both losing our minds at home, and I'm not sure how to help her move around because she has no energy to walk/do exercise, so she's starting to have back pain as well now.

The midwife says try your best but doesnt give us any other suggestions.

Do you have any recommendations on places we can try and go and whether it's normal for twim pregnancy mums to not be able to walk?

Thanks

Ask the midwife to check her iron levels, but not just the circulatory iron. The iron reserves/stores (ferritin). The standard
blood test showed my iron levels were within range but after further pushing for answers about why I had next to no energy and dizzy, feinting (once) and low blood pressure, a second test showed my ferritin levels were low. I felt so much better after a month of taking two Spatone sachets a day (iron rich water, the tablets made me feel sick!)

My only suggestion for places to go is national trust style places (stately homes, etc) where she can get out of the car, walk as much as she can manage to some gardens, sit on a bench and then sit in the cafe.

when I was pregnant, I did a lot of boring outings that involved the worlds smallest walk, a lot of sitting down on benches and eating cake!

Hope she feels better soon

What’s the walking issue? Low blood pressure? Pelvic girdle pain? Sciatica?

Can you drive? how far is it from the car park to the cinema? Or from a car park to a restaurant? Drive through? Just go and sit somewhere nice with a coffee in the car and watch the world go by?

Do crutches help?

When trying to get to the bottom of how crap I felt, my midwife also ordered vitamin D tests - that’s another thing to check.

I had a wheelchair when my pelvic pain was bad in pregnancy. Someone was just giving on away on Facebook

Yeah I had twins and I also struggled to walk.

I did shorter walks (like really short) with a lot of sitting down.

later in my pregnancy I got given a support belt by the nhs which really helped.

Try a pool?

Some national trust type places and big shopping centres also loan out mobility scooters, which might help with having some days out of the house.

When I had this with my twins it was gestational diabetes. Also, at 20odd weeks with my twins I was the same size as I was at 38w with my singleton, and I wouldn’t have been asking a lot of myself at that stage. My twin pregnancy really slowed me down.

Does she still have low blood pressure? I had it during a PG and it was awful. Is she drinking plenty of fluids?

Can she go swimming or even just floating about as she wont t have to bear her weight?

Unless there is some hip problem it is not normal to be unable to walk.

When I was pregnant with twins I had a 5 and 3 year old to care for. Yes I was tired at the end of the day but functioned well enough to walk to school etc twice a day.

If your wife is really exhausted it appears there is something else going on and needs medical attention.

Belly bands can help with supporting the weight of the bump. Definitely worth pushing for a referral to a physio for pelvic pain or going private. If her blood pressure is low then eating little and often helps as does being hydrated. Compression socks are apparently useful too for improving the circulation

I am so sorry your DW is going this have they not investigated why she is having so much trouble walking. I had twins and didn't have any problems walking at all at any time.

I struggled to walk in the third trimester of both of my singleton pregnancies (I'm very small framed). It's relatively normal - I was bedbound by the end.

I actually got so exhausted at the end that even sitting up to eat was absolutely exhausting. Nothing clinically wrong - it was just the strain on my body. My heart rate was over 160 beats a minute just from sitting up in bed. It dropped back down to 90 straight after delivery (70 BPM a day after delivery) and I could immediately stand, walk, run, move around again. I'm usually a pretty fit person when not pregnant.

I can't imagine how my body would cope with a twin pregnancy, but personally this sounds normal to me, you just have to endure it unfortunately.

Check iron and don't let them fob you off with "it's normal", if it's borderline. My midwife did this, and then I ended up taking myself to the maternity a&e a few weeks later for severe breathlessness, weakness and heart palpitations and I TOLD them I'm sure my iron is too low. They ran every test and then grumbled that my irons wasn't clinically below normal "but okay try iron". Night and day within a week. Energy came flooding back. Before the iron, I had to rest for 20 min to get my heart rate under control after the exertion of getting dressed and going downstairs to make breakfast. It was awful.

Also don't let her body get deconditioned by not moving...the path back is bloody awful (as someone who struggled with SPD). 3 years later in still in physio for SPD related issues. I'd totally recommend seeing a private physio who can give nice easy exercises to get her strength back up.

Also as someone with chronic low blood pressure, drink plenty of water (2/3l per day ), bit of extra salt in diet, and lovely lovely compression socks.

Is she in pain? If she has pelvic girdle pain this early she needs to see a specialist physio - go private because the NHS will take forever.

It's definitely not normal to not be able to walk.

I was pregnant with twins during summer and had to basically double my water intake otherwise I suffered with dizziness. I also ended up with low iron when I was further along.

If it's pain related, it would be worth booking a physio appointment (private, if possible, so she doesn't have to wait).

Twin pregnancy is tough going. She should do all she can to get on her feet. It will be much better for her in the long run.

Definitely get iron levels checked. I felt like this after I gave birth, I couldn't walk the length or a corridor, was going everywhere in a wheelchair. the doctor thought it was odd so they checked my iron levels and they were really low. A few days of iron tablets and I felt normal again.

Would definitely ask for a check up, maybe with GP urgently, rather than midwife, as this doesn’t sound within realms of normal at all. Also was a twin mum and was mobile and working up to 32 weeks, lucky I know, but other twin mums I knew did not have anything like symptoms your wife has.

I had to get signed off at 19 weeks with twins, I just could not do the commute into London. Has she seen an osteopath? My pelvis had basically collapsed. It was awful.

I have been exhausted in pregnancy and needing to sleep a lot. I'm deficient in vit d, iron, and needed b12 injections every other day so deffo get that checked!