Hi. I am 38 years old and I am 16 weeks pregnant. I suffered with a slipped disc for 12 weeks from February this year, I had only gone back to work a month and a half before I got pregnant (which was planned and we are really excited about it). We think the herniation was caused by a combination of starting to do beginners yoga daily after not exercising for two years (new year, new me 🙄), alongside a lot of driving for my work and my car seat not be positioned properly. I am not one to take strong pain killers and got through it with mainly Paracetamol and Ibuprofen but the pain was chronic and I really fear feeling that constant pain again. I stopped doing my physio exercises because I am pregnant and didn't want to harm the baby. I tried getting back in contact with my NHS Physio again but they never called me back. The first trimester I was so exhausted I tried pregnancy yoga twice but I have just been too tired.
My fear is will a vaginal birth re-rupture the discs and put me back into the chronic pain whilst trying to look after a new born. I am also scared of having a c-section due to having an epidural (a neighbor's went wrong when I was a kid and they lost feeling in their whole left hand side and was on crutches, which has never left my mind) and having a longer recovery period whilst looking after a newborn.
Any real life experiences with this? Am I being scared over nothing or should I really be considering a c-section? What is more painful, a slipped disc or c-section recovery? I have been hoping for a water birth but as I have a thyroid disorder they need to monitor the baby and their is only one birthing pool in the labour ward so it will be first come first serve so I cannot rely on this.