Some women experience sciatica nerve pain during pregnancy. You cannot say that it's a totally pregnancy related thing, thought several women do get sciatica nerve pain.
This is a long nerve from the feet to the lower back. The role of this nerve is to induce the sense of feeling in the muscles of the feet and legs.
But sometimes because of some injury or pressure in the back, the nerve can become inflamed and this causes pain. Persistent pressure can cause weakness and numbness in the leg. It's a pins and needles sensation. Inflammation of the sciatica nerve can cause pain. Some of the symptoms include tingling, numbness or weakness in the leg.
During pregnancy, there is pressure on the sciatica nerve, which can cause discomfort and backache. Very often, the pain comes from a damaged disc in the spine. This leads to inflammation of the tissues around the nerve or pressure on the nerve. The connection between pregnancy and sciatica nerve pain is that pregnant women can get disc injury more easily.
If you feel a tingling sensation in the back of your legs or back, or discomfort, then do speak to a doctor and get a check-up done to screen sciatica.
Some of the symptoms to look out for include -
If you have sciatica and are pregnant, then you might find that the pain disappears on its own. But then, it might take a few weeks for this to happen and you'll feel uncomfortable till then. You can consider visiting a physiotherapist, and work on exercises to help relieve the pain. You can also try manual therapy to get relief from the discomfort and pressure associated with back pain during pregnancy.
Discuss your situation with your therapist. Quite possible, she will prescribe a set of exercises to improve the situation and strengthen the muscles of the back, abdomen, and pelvic floor. On the whole, these will also be beneficial when you go into labor and deliver your baby naturally. You can also try chiropractic care as well as massage therapy.
