Posture during pregnancy, low back pain and the importance of osteopathic treatment.

During pregnancy, a woman's body undergoes numerous and significant postural and hormonal changes. The weight of the belly will cause the center of gravity to shift forward, causing a postural response that will lead to obvious changes in the position of the head, shoulders (the closing of the shoulders is also amplified by the increased weight of the breast), spine and pelvis. It is very important that all these adaptation processes do not encounter obstacles and proceed in a completely natural way.

The most common problems that can arise during pregnancy are related to the spine and the muscles that support it, often causing back pain (lumbago), sciatica, neck pain (cervicalgia), headaches (cephalea), or problems related to digestion or nausea, breathing difficulties and intestinal transit. Lumbar pain is a particularly frequent event during pregnancy, often proving to be long-lasting and disabling (1). The frequency of this painful manifestation during pregnancy varies between 50% and 90% of women (2). During pregnancy, women's body mass increases due to the increase in localized tissues especially in the lower part of the trunk (10).

The need to have more space in front of the body due to the presence of the pregnant uterus also leads to a more backward position of the hips, obtained with a greater backward inclination of the ankle and a greater flexion of the knees compared to non-pregnant women; this also causes an increase in plantar pressure on the back of the foot. To maintain balance, the hips are therefore positioned further back, in order to compensate for the forward shift of the center of gravity of the trunk. All these postural adjustments determine an increase in the load on the lumbar region of the spine and, consequently, can cause low back pain (3). Added to these postural changes is the decrease in strength of the abdominal muscles, an event that is increasingly accentuated as the pregnancy progresses.

Osteopathic treatment aims to assist this evolution by helping the body to optimally use its resources to adapt during the progress of pregnancy. Osteopathy can help you because it provides for maintaining the right mobility of all the muscular and joint structures that are subjected to stress due to the growth of the fetus. The belly can easily lead to muscle-ligament tension, movement limitations, as well as compression of the abdominal viscera or stress on the nervous system.

Global balance and posture must find a new arrangement, in particular the curves of the back and the spinal column must be arranged to favor the support of a weight that increases day after day. The osteopath, through a global approach, aims to facilitate the adaptation of this new balance, using the hands and palpatory ability as the only therapeutic means, which allow to identify and dissolve any tensions. In short, osteopathy supports the woman's body in the changes that occur during pregnancy and is therefore an effective complement to traditional medical treatments.