another gem of practical advice from midwife - any more?!

[bluepanda]

Great piece of advice from midwife after telling her about wince-inducing sciatica. She said it was due to the way the baby was lying, head down, slightly towards back, therefore pressing on nerve. When I asked if there was anything i could do to encourage baby out of said position she said "try spending lots of time on all fours"
Given i work in a (male-dominated) office it had me giggling to myself for the rest of the day.
Just wondered if there were any other not in the real world gems out there?

Well - IME it has been known to work. It isn't her fault you work in a male dominated office. You could try some "crawling time" when you are not at work.

Also - there are specific exercises which can relieve pregnancy related sciatica - they also really work in many cases - you do them a couple of times a day:

Lie on your back on a mat or folded duvet on the floor. Keep your shoulders on the floor as much as possible. Bring your knees up towards your chest and hug them. Slowly straighten legs again. Repeat but just bring one knee up at a time. Then, bring your R. knee up to your chest, let your right leg flop over your body till your knee is almost touching the floor on your left side. Roll it back again and straighten leg. Repeat with other leg.
Finish by bringing both knees up to chest again.

Never sit straight up to get up off the floor or out of bed. Always roll onto your side, put feet on floor before standing.

When getting out of the car, turn your whole body, knees together, feet on ground, then stand.

HTH.

Obviously - when getting up off the floor, roll to a crawling position then stand. Feet on floor applies to when getting out of bed.

lol - brilliant!

If you can, get to a women's health physio. I had sciatica when pregnant with DD2. The physio I saw said the sciatic nerve runs through a number of muscles in your back and buttock before going down your leg. As your pregnancy advances the muscles in your abdomen that are meant to support your trunk can't work as efficiently (due to the baby stretching them) and so the muscles in your back try and take over - but they're not very good at relaxing afterwards and so wind up in spasm. Squashing your sciatic nerve in the process and giving you sciatica. When I walked in the muscles on one side of my lower back were so tight that hip was a good inch or so higher than the other - 1/2 hour later my hips were level and the sciatica had gone. She also showed DH where and how to do a gentle massage to stop it getting too bad again.

Hope you can get something sorted

ha ha it's not easy is it! Does your office have a rest area? I used to go in there at lunch times and kneel on the floor over a footstool which helped my spd a bit.

I regularly go and sit on the sink in the toilets for a few minutes as well just to get away from them for a bit but that's another story .....