Labour

I lost my mobility in pregnancy by 18 weeks. I did see a pelvic health specialist physio though who did manual therapy and acupuncture and got me my mobility back (by 40 weeks I was off the codeine and even able to drive short distances again). I loved my labour though I had a home, water birth so I don't know if that made a difference. I would definitely say to push hard for more treatment with the pain now to prepare you for labour.

Would you consider getting an epidural? I had one and it was such a RELIEF after months of PGP - the pain was gone almost instantly, it was bliss! If you’re going for VBAC, you might want to discuss the pros and cons with your midwife and/or obstetrician. The cons are discussed *a lot* online (and often wildly exaggerated by the “freebirthers” and scaremongerers), but for me, one of the pros was the idea that if baby got into distress, there wouldn’t be any delay getting spinal/epidural sorted, they could just top up and get baby out quickly. Plus obviously the amazing pain relief. Massive pro there 👍 Appreciate it’s not for everyone, but if you want a positive birthing story with an epidural, I’m always happy to share.

I suffered really badly, walking was near on impossible. But I LOVED my labour. I think I forgot about that pain and concentrated on labour. My labour was very quick though. 1hr20mins start to finish. I'm still really struggling with PGP now though. Speak to your midwife and let her know your worries x

I suffered with PGP and 3months postpartum still having physio- xray said I have Diastasis recti in the pelvis area. In labour no extra pain just normal labour pains. But then pain returned afterbirth but was diagnosed with diastasis.

@Kelly was that on the NHS? Because I'm over in rugby I've literally been offered crutches and a pat on the back by my physio at gp, I've made an appointment for Friday to push back on wanting more specialist help! Just wanted to go in with some knowledge of what is available!

@Paige I paid privately because I couldn't get an appointment with the NHS at the time as they were so overrun but I am volunteering on the maternity voices partnership now and we have a group just for perinatal pelvic health. I have been told that they have physios that offer manual therapy in the Leicestershire partnership trust but they can't see everyone so they have to assess each person and decide who would get the greatest benefit. Did you see someone who specifically works in perinatal pelvic health or was it a general physio? Also have a look at the pelvic partnership website as they have lots of advice and tips

@Anke what are the cons of birth with PGP?

@Stephanie I can’t really advise because I’m not a medical professional - I did a lot of research about my own risks (eg based on my age, weight, activity levels etc) but I knew even before the PGP started that I wanted an epidural. So I can only really retrospectively talk about the positives of the epidural in my own experience, having suffered from bad PGP in the third trimester. My main advice when doing research is not to trust people on social media unless you can see they are certified, trained professionals! The best people to advise are obstetricians and gynaecologists, ideally ones who know all your personal risk factors so they can tailor their advice properly 🙂

@Anke I've already given birth, I was just curious. I can tell you how mine went. I had the epidural, and all was good (I didn't feel the perineal tearing) BUT the last push I felt like my entire body tore open and not where I actually tore but like up my clit. I was in bed not moving for a week after in hospital as I had severe preeclampsia and the treatment caused my lungs to fill with water, so I didn't walk. For around 4w my clit area felt so painful even when I wasn't moving. I was worried I had nerve damage. I had this pain during pregnancy with PGP as well as the feeling of my pelvis coming apart when I turned in bed, intense pain at the back of my pelvis etc too. The PGP had lessened from 28w to 35w because I was super careful about moving the right way, but that's how my birth went. My clit area didn't feel normal until recently (I'm 4m out). I still have a feeling of instability in my pelvis when walking but nothing that would stop me moving around and nothing like the pain during pregnancy.

I’m so sorry this happened to you 😞 that sounds really traumatic. Thank goodness for modern medicine, pre-eclampsia used to be deadly 💔 I hope you are healing well, physically and mentally. I don’t know if they do this where you’re based, but in the UK, hospitals often do a “debrief” kind of thing with midwives, to help mums process what happened during childbirth. I’ve heard it can sometimes help. The instability in the hips can last a while without the pain but gets better after stopping breastfeeding (not encouraging anyone to stop, just confirming my experience and what I was told by a physio).

@Anke I think your physio might be working out outdated beliefs. PGP is not hormone related at all and there is no evidence that it is prolonged by breastfeeding. I would guess that positioning for feeds might be an issue if someone's posture is not great during feeding it can make pain worse. I know on the nights where I have been up a lot and failing asleep feeding in the chair, I have been sore so it's about trying to be in the right position and not fall asleep (for me) even when I am exhausted in the middle of the night

@Kelly I think you’re probably right - I couldn’t find much evidence to support her views, but my own experience has been that things got easier after I stopped… that could be down to a number of factors though. Baby needs picking up less, has spent more time at nursery etc etc. I think it’s probably much more multi factorial but the good news is that I’ve found it improved massively over time. Definitely not the reason I stopped breastfeeding and I’d never encourage anyone to stop if it’s working for them ❤️

Thank you all for your comments, advice and first hand experiences, it's all really useful ❤️🩷

Also my hip problems *now* are probably not actually PGP related at all as I injured myself during 3rd trimester (exacerbated by PGP) and I think my joints, ligaments and muscles got deconditioned due to a limp/posture issues. The physio might have thought the hormones were slowing down my recovery specifically, I’m not sure. She never encouraged me to stop, just said I might notice an improvement once I did. Many people I know who had PGP improved a lot quicker - in weeks, not months after birth, even while breastfeeding. So not a reason to stop, at all.

@Anke I think there's definitely been a huge development of understanding in the last 20 years. I just find it very disconcerting when a medical professional is relying on heavily outdated knowledge to give information which may undermine breastfeeding. The correct stance would have been to refer you to your midwife or consultant obstetrician for the correct info and to plan. That's what I did, I had a telephone consultation with an obstetrician when I was at my worst and developed about 3 pain management plans for however it looked at birth

@Kelly oh I was referred during pregnancy don’t worry! The physio advice was 1 year post-partum, I’d already been breastfeeding for a year and was preparing to stop for other reasons. I didn’t find the referrals much help at the time - the hospital’s physio department was pretty useless but I found a private physio who was slightly better. With regard to pain management, I was given a 1:1 appointment with an anaesthetist for an hour to talk about a pain management plan including epidural. I don’t think there’s much persuasive modern evidence to support that epidurals undermine breastfeeding. A lot of older studies tried to make that link but many of the older studies were done at a time when epidurals were often done in complicated births, not electively. Which skewed the statistics badly towards “epidurals are associated with complications” when it’s correlation not causation.

@Anke yea the NHS help when I was pregnant was near non existent sadly. I ended up paying privately for a physio I found through the Pelvic Partnership recommended list and she was an absolute life saver. I wasn't suggesting epidurals undermined breastfeeding. It was the advice that hormones might be slowing down the recovery. Many people would use that as a reason to stop feeding because we all appreciate how painful PGP can be and how we just need it to stop especially with littles to look after.