SPD, lack of movement = muscle wasting?

[YanknbeforetheCockcrows]

I'm 20 weeks pregnant and have SPD. Been referred for physio and got my first appointment next week.

I've had a lot of very helpful advice from ladies on Mumsnet on how to cope and not make it worse, so thanks for that!

I am off work and mostly stay in the house sitting on the sofa or lying down. I don't lift heavy stuff anymore. Today, due to my ultrasound appointment, I did more walking than I normally do most days. Now back home and am hurting a lot.

DH thinks I have to try to keep moving a bit otherwise my muscles will waste. I am inclined to say that my current 'barely moving' state keeps the pain at bay. I know his concerns come from a good place and am wondering if he's right at all in this case.

Anyone with SPD care to comment?

Unless you are on total bedrest, your muscles won't waste away. However you do need to find some way of keeping mobile, otherwise your risk of DVT increases substantially. Also prolonged sofa-sitting can give you back trouble, especially as your pg progresses and your shape changes.

Swimming?

I heard swimming is OK but definitely not breaststroke which makes it worse.

My wife has had SPD for the last 7 years and never got any help or advice from her GP so did all the wrong things and permanently injured herself. She swims now and finds it helpful to get some mobility but has to be very careful on wet floors for very obvious reasons.

herbietea is the absolute best person to ask though. She is a real MN expert on this.

I suggest you get a birthing ball. I find it really helps with the pain.

Its good that you got a physio referal. Hopefully you will get a support belt that will help with pain.

At the moment I am sitting on my birthing ball and surfing mumsnet!

I worry about this too. I have SPD, and even with my support belt find doing things like walking to the bus stop, or walking around Sainsburys, all a bit much.

The only way to not hurt is to not move. I still have to get to and from work, but while there, and while at home, I feel like I'm turning into a blob with bedsores. I even did some (knees together) squats in the loo just now to get some activity going. Maybe we should do some exercises that don't involve the pelvis, like tricep dips, er, stuff like that to stave off muscle wastage.

Swimming would be lovely, but (TMI warning) I can't get my legs far apart enough to get bikini area trimmed well enough! Plus I normally only do the breast stroke, not sure I can even remember how to do anything else...

I just don't buy that my muscles will waste. I do potter around the house a bit, and go up and down the stairs at least 3-4 times a day (toilet upstairs). Sometimes it takes me a long time, one stair at a time, or going up backwards with legs together, but I do it!

This evening has been agony, and I couldn't have walked more than 1/3 of a mile altogether.