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This post is based on a bit of selfish research really. You see I'm 20 weeks pregnant now and last night I experienced tear jerking pain in my lower back while I was resting in bed. I know as the baby gets bigger and everything starts moving around different areas are feeling pressure they don't normally. And apparently this means different nerves get squeezed. I want to know how I can remedy this, or at least understand more about why it happens.

Brian, my husband, bought me one of those full body snuggle pillows for me to use while in bed. This is something which is supposed to help alleviate slumber troubles and aches and pains.

Sciatica is a general term for pain originating from the sciatic nerve. Sciatica is a symptom of a disorder that causes mild to sharp and sometimes excruciating pain. Patients have described sciatic pain as mildly disturbing to burning, aching, deep, and similar to a sudden bolt of lightning. I believe this is different than the pain I felt in my lower back, but I did experience this nerve pain last week and eventually something must have shifted because the pain subsided after a couple of days.

Okay, so regardless of the reasons for pregnancy back pain, what are the solutions?

I admit warm baths are helpful. In fact if I could take a warm bath each day it would be a blessing. Unfortunately after i take a bath I always feel the need to take a shower later in the evening to actually get clean. Our bath tub doesn't fill up with much warm water though and I'm tempted to boil a pot and bring it up to the tub with me for refills.

You should avoid sitting for long periods of time and you should avoid standing for long periods of time. If you are standing then make sure you have supportive shoes. If you are sitting you should make sure your seat is supportive and firmer is better than softer. (This is true with your mattress as well).

Avoid lifting heavy things AND avoid reaching for thing on high shelves. Oy vey, all these things to avoid. And see with Christmas just having passed there are a lot of things I feel like I need to do and one of those is some serious cleaning. Little bits at a time though, if you can't avoid something at least pace yourself, right?

Do any of you have other helpful tips?

Labels: back pain, pregnancy

As is typical, the National Institutes of Health have released more wellness related research and I'm going to brief you.

Pregnancy in women who have diabetes is automatically considered high-risk. Though I am blessed not to have diabetes I did have a high risk pregnancy. Basically it means you go through more visits, ultrasounds and tests which can cause higher anxiety during what should be a precious and exciting time.

So to make things easier to handle there is a new booklet available titled "For Women with Diabetes: Your Guide to Pregnancy." The introduction to the booklet is as follows: "You have type 1 or type 2 diabetes and you are pregnant or hoping to get pregnant soon. You can learn what to do to have a healthy baby. You can also learn how to take care of yourself and your diabetes before, during, and after your pregnancy."

You can order a free copy at this link. If you would like to read it online you can view each section here.

More information is available at Diabetes Educator.org.

Labels: diabetes, pregnancy