I have had back pain since giving birth, and I dare not sit or lie down. This is because...

Author: Tang Qin, Deputy Secretary-General and Researcher of the Science Popularization Expert Committee of the Chinese Medical Association

Reviewer: Fang Weigong, Deputy Director and Chief Physician, Acupuncture Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences

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Many new mothers feel that their physical condition is different from before giving birth. Not only do they lose their figure and have trouble sleeping, but they also suffer from unbearable back pain. In severe cases, they dare not sit or lie down, and cannot stand standing for a long time.

Clinically, back pain is called "non-specific back pain", which is a type of "spontaneous back pain". It generally refers to back pain of unknown cause, which is different from back pain caused by arthritis, herniated disc, fracture, infection and other causes.

Does every mother experience back pain after childbirth?

Does every mother experience back pain? The answer is yes, but the degree of pain varies.

I believe that everyone has seen pregnant women who are more than 8 months pregnant in life. I don’t know if you have noticed that when they stand up, they often hold the armrest of the chair with one hand, then push their belly forward, hold their waist with the other hand, and then slowly stand up.

Why is this so? Because when a woman is pregnant, the weight of the baby in her belly is concentrated on her waist. During the ten months of pregnancy, the baby grows bigger and bigger, and the weight increases every day, and the burden on the pregnant woman's waist also increases every day, which will cause waist pain over time.

After giving birth, some women will experience relief from pain as the burden on their waist is reduced, but some women will still feel pain.

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Why do I still have back pain after giving birth?

Excluding the causes of disease, the main causes of low back pain in women after childbirth are as follows.

**The first reason: changes in walking posture and gait during pregnancy. **During pregnancy, women gain weight and their center of gravity changes. In order to increase stability when standing and walking, they have to adjust their walking posture and gait. Long-term abnormal posture and gait will change the structure of the spine and even the curvature of the lumbar spine, which will lead to a series of problems. In order to maintain balance and stability, the muscles and ligaments that fix the lumbar spine will change accordingly. The muscles that should be relaxed become tense, and the ligaments that should be stretched become loose due to changes in posture.

If the bad posture does not last long and is adjusted quickly, there will generally be no major problems. After all, the human body's bones, joints, muscles and ligaments are all flexible to a certain extent and can achieve "self-healing".

However, if the posture is not adjusted for several months or even years, the bad posture will aggravate the waist problems, and the most obvious symptom is waist pain.

**The second reason: endocrine reasons. **When a woman is pregnant, the endocrine system will go through a special period. In order to ensure the safety of the next generation, the human body will spontaneously adjust and promote the secretion of relaxin, which relaxes the bones, joints and ligaments, leading to discomfort in pregnant women.

The third reason: When the fetus is about to be delivered, it compresses the nerves and ligaments in the lumbar region, causing soreness and pain in the lower back.

It can be said that women have to go through hardships throughout the entire process from pregnancy to childbirth, and lower back pain is one of the tests.

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How to relieve back pain after childbirth

So, how to relieve postpartum back pain?

1. Rest in bed : When you suddenly experience severe low back pain, you should rest in bed. At the same time, you should pay attention to observe which action or situation causes the low back pain, and try to avoid it in your future life.

2. Hot compress : Heat large edible salt (pickle salt/washed salt) and put it in a thick cloth bag, then apply it to the painful area. This can remove dampness and cold. Hot compress can promote blood circulation, especially during the postpartum breastfeeding period, so this method can be preferred.

3. Massage and acupuncture therapy : The mother should keep sitting, and the breastfeeding women should not lie on the bed to prevent breast compression and mastitis. Massage and acupuncture can temporarily relax the spasmodic muscle tissue and have an analgesic effect in the early stage of pain, but you should go to a regular hospital and ask a professional doctor for massage and acupuncture.

4. Improving bad posture : The key to improving the back pain of parturients. When pregnant, women's walking and sleeping postures will change little by little without them noticing. After giving birth, most people do not adjust their previous bad postures, so although the burden on the lumbar spine is reduced, the back pain does not improve, and some even become more serious. Therefore, parturients should pay attention to improving their walking and sleeping postures, and slowly adjust to the state before pregnancy, so that the back pain will be improved.

Whether it is pregnant women or other people, we should have the concept of "prevention first". If you have back pain, you should pay attention to it, detect it early, analyze the cause, and treat it symptomatically.