Lower Back Pain During Early Pregnancy: Causes & Relief

Question
QUESTION: I am 5 weeks pregent women ..i am fit not over weight ,,my problem is i feel frquent pain in my lower back..it irritates me a lot..can i use electrical heating pad to get relieve from it..or any other tretment if you can suggest ,,thanks a lot

ANSWER: Since you are only 5 weeks along, and your uterus is still small and light weight, I doubt whether your pregnancy has anything to do with your back pain. Most likely you lack core stability. The deep muscles of the torso should work to prevent undesired movement in your pelvis, torso, and spine. When these muscles don't function correctly, either your pelvis, spine, shoulder girdle, etc. will get pulled out of position by the weight and force of your limbs. This can create many types of overuse injuries such as sciatica, low back pain, arthritis, stenosis, muscle tears/spasms. Since you get relief from heat, you are most likely experiencing muscle spasms.

I advise you to hire a top notch personal trainer or Pilates expert who has expertise in prenatal exercise to show you how to do core exercises, and how to train your deep torso muscles to function correctly. This will be a huge benefit for you, for as you tummy grows bigger, core strength and functional control/stability will become more difficult.

As an added benefit, pregnant women who maintain good core strength during pregnancy has easier labors (you use the deep abs during labor) and bounce back more quickly afterwards.

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QUESTION: hi,,thanks a lot for yourv detailed reply..but my question was if i can use heating pad to get relieve from this back pain..i feel same kind of pain that i used to feel during my periods.however this pain does not last long..it happens for an hour or so some times less than an hour but i want to know weather i can use heating pads and they does not cause any harm to my pregnecny??

Answer
Localized heat to relieve pain for a short period of time is OK. Pregnant women need avoid overheating their whole bodies, as in a hot tub, as this can raise core temperature which is potentially harmful to the developing baby. Avoid use of electric blankets.