What's Really Causing Your Postpartum Back Pain

Postpartum back pain is a postpartum disease mainly characterized by low back muscle pain, which manifests as one or both sides of the low back, and can lead to leg pain. This phenomenon actually started to appear in the third trimester. During pregnancy, due to the forward tilt of the pelvis, the lumbar spine is tilted forward, so there will be low back pain problems during pregnancy. After giving birth, some physical changes caused during pregnancy are not fully recovered, such as the separation of the rectus abdominis, so the back pain during pregnancy may continue after childbirth. During pregnancy, the slow enlargement of the uterus will cause the waist to bear the burden. Relatively large pressure, if the weight gain during pregnancy is too fast, it will increase the burden on the waist and abdomen, and bury the hidden danger of low back pain.

What are the causes of postpartum low back pain?

1. Pelvic ligament laxity

The pubic relaxin secreted by the corpus luteum and placenta during pregnancy can affect the ligaments and muscles around the pelvis and spine, resulting in a decrease in the stability of the pelvis and spine, relaxation of the muscles around the spine, and inability to stabilize and support the lumbar spine. Postpartum low back pain is very important physiological reasons.

2. High body mass index during pregnancy

Excessive weight gain during pregnancy will increase the burden on the spine and easily lead to lumbosacral muscle damage; excessive weight gain during pregnancy may lead to excessive fetal weight, which may lead to prolonged natural labor or caesarean section, which may cause postpartum low back pain.

3. Insufficient calcium intake

In the third trimester of pregnancy, 30g of calcium in pregnant women is stored in the fetus, and most of the rest is stored in the bones of pregnant women, which can be mobilized to participate in fetal growth and development at any time. Insufficient calcium intake during pregnancy, the calcium in the bones of pregnant women is consumed in large quantities to meet the needs of the fetus, causing postpartum calcium deficiency and also a cause of postpartum low back pain.

4. Improper breastfeeding posture

Breastfeeding is a technical job. Often, improper or unrelaxed positions are used to feed the baby, such as sideways, bending over, etc., or the waist is too tight, which can easily make the waist muscles in a state of unrelaxed, causing pain.

5. Lack of exercise

During pregnancy and for a period of time after childbirth, most pregnant and lying-in women mainly focus on recuperation, and the amount of exercise is significantly reduced, which is easy to cause disuse atrophy of the core muscle group, and it is easy to cause pain under the induction of bad posture or movement.

6. Postpartum pelvic floor dysfunction

After pregnancy, childbirth, or after midwifery surgery during labor, the pelvic fascia, muscles and ligaments are overstretched and their support is weakened, leading to prolapse of pelvic organs, such as the anterior and posterior walls of the vagina or the cervix and uterus. The prolapse of the body out of the vaginal opening is called postpartum pelvic floor dysfunction. Usually accompanied by varying degrees of low back pain.