Low back and pelvic pain in pregnant women is such a common phenomenon that it is often considered a normal part of the pregnancy.

Low back and pelvic pain in pregnant women is such a common phenomenon that it is often considered a normal part of the pregnancy [1-3]. However, the high prevalence of this problem (50-80% of women) and the impact that this may have on their quality of life, as well as the fact that back pain during pregnancy is commonly linked to low back pain persisting after pregnancy, mandates that it be taken seriously by health care practitioners [1-6]. Many of these patients rate their back pain as moderate to severe with a small percentage claiming to be significantly disabled by the pain.

A study performed at the University of Zürich, wanted to find if chiropractic treatment for low back pain was effective. Without boring you with the whole study, the results were that 52% of 115 recruited patients ‘improved’ at 1 week, 70% at 1 month, 85% at 3 months, 90% at 6 months and 88% at 1 year.

The conclusion was that most pregnant patients undergoing chiropractic treatment reported clinically relevant improvement at all time points.

Dr. Gibson at RTP Chiropractic is a board certified Chiropractic Physician in Morrisville North Carolina. He develops specific protocols for pregnant women to help them not only during the pregnancy but also afterwards.

 

 

1. Perkins J, Hammer RL, Loubert PV:
   Identification and management of pregnancy-related low back pain.
   J Nurse Midwifery 1998, 43: 331–340.

2. Skaggs CD, Prather H, Gross G, George JW, Thompson PA, Nelson DM:
   Back pain and pelvic pain in an underserved United States pregnant population: a preliminary descriptive survey.
   J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2007, 30: 130–134.

3. Mohseni-Bandpei MA, Fakhri M, Ahmad-Shirvani M, Bagheri-Nessami M, Khalilian AR, Shayesteh-Azar M, Mohseni-Bandpei H:
   Low back pain in 1,100 Iranian pregnant women: prevalence and risk factors.
   Spine J 2009, 9: 795–801.

4. Khorsan R, Hawk C, Lisi AJ, Kizhakkeveettil A:
   Manipulative therapy for pregnancy and related conditions: a systematic review.
   Obstet Gynecol Surv 2009, 64: 416–427.

5. Pennick V, Young G:
   Interventions for preventing and treating pelvic and back pain in pregnancy (Review).
   Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2007, 18: CD001139.

6. Stuber KJ, Smith DL:
   Chiropractic treatment of pregnancy-related low back pain: a systematic review of the evidence.
   J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2008, 31: 447–454.