What to Do If You are in Pain During Pregnancy

Honestly, pain is a part of pregnancy. I just don’t know how we could grow another entire human inside our body without some of it — but that doesn’t mean we have to just sit back and relax into parts that can be REALLY painful. Today I want talk about what you can do if you’re experiencing pain during your pregnancy.

While you’re here be sure to grab my organized before delivery checklist:

The first question:

Is it safe pain?

Some pains should be sending us right into the doctor’s office, or into the hospital.

While it’s definitely important to talk with your provider about what to watch for YOU in your situation, here are a few questions to ask:

Are these contractions, and am I before 36 weeks? — if so, call provider or go into L&D

Has this pain suddenly gotten worse? That may need to trigger a phone call — especially if it lasts long

Does the pain have any other symptoms like a fever, burning when you pee, sudden fatigue or shortness of breath etc — if so, that triggers a call to your provider or a visit to L&D.

Again, I’d encourage you to ask your provider about problem signs specific to YOU and YOUR pregnancy.

While there are a lot of very NORMAL pains of pregnancy, it doesn’t mean we can’t work to make them better.

Want to know more about pregnancy pains? — check out these posts:

• Bladder Infections in Pregnancy
• 5 Fixes for Groin Pain During Pregnancy
• Sleeping During Pregnancy: Tips by Trimester
• What Does Round Ligament Pain Feel Like
• How to Sit in an Office Chair During Pregnancy

Ok, now that we’ve gotten past that part — it’s important to ask yourself:

Do you want to know if this is NORMAL or if it needs to be FIXED?

I think (once we know it’s “safe”) this is the most important question to ask yourself.

Some pains aren’t that bad — but you worry something is wrong. Things like cramping, short stabbing pains that are tolerable but it sort of feels like your uterus is ripping out of your body….

So, if that’s the case ask your provider if they’re normal.

However, some of the pains we have are affecting our day to day life and can really be problematic.

At that point you want a fix, or at least an attempt at a fix.

This is your reminder that your provider is really there for your health and safety, but does not know all the tips to fixing all the aches and pains of pregnancy. They will need to refer you out, and likely it will take some work on you end to get an appointment and then do the stretches they recommend. This isn’t a quick fix — but you may be wanting to seek for help. And honestly, it may not get all that much better, but if it’s worth a try for you, it should be worth a try for them.

They may have a “first line” of defense to help you in the office — things like some specific stretches to try, a pregnancy belly band, heating packs, in specific spots, etc. Often providers will try those first to maybe fix the problem and safe you the time/effort of finding someone else.

However, sometimes you do need someone else!

People they can refer you to help (there is likely more than this, but these are what I thought of first):

• Physical therapy
• Chiropractor
• Massage

I hear some people saying they went to the physical therapist (one visit) and say “it didn’t help at all” and that’s not what we’re even hoping for with this. It’s likely going to take:

• Changes in your lifestyle, how you do specific movements may need to change and adjust
• It may take multiple visits
• Visiting a few of those people (aka Physical Therapist and a massage therapist)
• You doing work on the days you’re not going in.

I recently had a pretty bad issue, and I was shocked that it took almost a full week of doing the stretching (which hurt a LOT) for it to really show improvement, but then it rapidly started to get better and I felt better by about 10 days in.

I sort of just had to believe she knew what she was doing…. which was hard for this nurse. 🙂

And now I do those stretches a few times/month to stay limber, and not have the problem again later on.

However, I know a lot of people feel like…

My Doctor Ignores My Pain — What do I do?

You have to remember that doctors are busy, and the reality is that almost every patient that comes to see them (especially anyone in the third trimester) is experiencing pain.

There is no way for them ascertain how much the pain hurts (and if you’re willing to put the work in to fix it as I mentioned above) and if it’s working taking the time to get you into someone else.

The words that I think really help are:

This is really affecting my daily life, I’m not able to do the things I need to do — who can help me?

I know that sort of sounds dramatic — but I think sometimes it takes that type of talk to make things happen, unfortunately.

If me helping you know the words to say helps you out — check out this. It has a whole provider communication video that can help like this!

Hopefully, when you use words like that your doctor will take the time to see what they can do.

Keep in mind that if you come to the next appointment and haven’t made your appointment with the provider or done their stretches, that makes them wonder if referring you to someone really helps — so I can only strongly recommend you start the ball rolling on your end.

The other bad news I hear a lot is that physical therapists in their area are booked. I’d still encourage you to make an appointment, and maybe call around to see if there is anyone else they could recommend.

It’s tricky because I think a chiropractor can be VERY helpful, but some chiropractors practice so far out of their practice (aka, let me talk about how to deliver your baby) it’s hard for OBGYN’s to refer them out. But, I wouldn’t hesitate to send you to a good one, they are great and manipulating your bones and I think can even be a great compliment to a physical therapist.

You want to look for a chiropractor who is trained in the Webster method. That’s a special certification for pregnancy help (as far as I understand it

And honestly, if you don’t need a referral, you might just start asking around to see if anyone you know has one they liked…. Just know it sometimes takes a few providers before you find the one that’s right for you.

Let me just summarize it in a few points:

1. Decide if you want to know if it’s normal or if you need a fix.
2. Try the first line of defense and see if those are helping
3. Ask your provider for a referral out to get more help if necessary.
4. Be aware that not all pains can be fixed, but hopefully someone can help you manage it better.

Honestly, learning how to navigate the healthcare system is hard. It’s almost like a foreign country.

The bad news is that the hospital will also be quite tricky — which is why everyone needs to get a birth class in.

I recommend this one. It can be done in just a few hours and is such a good foundation for moving through the rest of your pregnancy, labor, birth and life after baby!