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Six Ways To Help Manage Pelvic Girdle Pain in Pregnancy

Six Ways To Help Manage Pelvic Girdle Pain in Pregnancy

Written by Jessica Mazurek – Clinical Myotherapist | 19th May 2023

Have you been experiencing pain or discomfort in your low back, hips, or pubic bone during your pregnancy? You may have what is called pelvic girdle pain (PGP), sometimes also referred to as symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD). These terms are used to describe a collection of symptoms that affect the joints of your pelvis, and the onset is typically from a range of factors including hormonal, genetic, and biomechanical.

PGP can cause a lot of pain and discomfort and really impact your daily life and activities. Early diagnosis and symptom management can help to relieve and prevent worsening of your pain throughout your pregnancy.

What is Pelvic Girdle Pain?

Biomechanically, the lumbar spine (your low back), has a lot of stress placed on it due to the growing uterus and additional weight added to the front of your body. This can cause a shift in your centre of gravity, putting more pressure on the low back and pelvis, which can then cause changes to your posture. Women who have PGP or SPD, will often present with increased mobility of the pelvic, thoracic (mid back) and lumbar joints, which can cause pelvic instability and pain. When joints are more mobile than stable, this can mean there is also a loss of muscular strength in the surrounding muscles, such as the low back, gluteal (your bottom muscles), and abdominal muscles.

During your pregnancy, there are also a lot of hormonal changes that happen. One hormone that is released is called Relaxin, and helps to loosen and relax the muscles, joints, and ligaments during pregnancy to help your body stretch to accommodate your growing baby. It also helps to relax the muscles and ligaments in your pelvis to prepare for birth. The increase in this hormone can therefore affect the mobility of the pelvis and the strength of surrounding muscles, sometimes leading to discomfort and pain.

How Do I Know if I Have Pelvic Girdle Pain?

The most common symptom is generally pain, which can be felt in your low back, your hips or in your pubic bone, which can radiate down your legs. This can include:

  • Pain when putting weight onto one leg, like getting dressed and putting your pants on or when walking up or down stairs.
  • Pain when opening or straddling your legs, such as getting in and out of your bed or the car.
  • Difficulty walking that changes the way you walk. You may feel like you need to ‘waddle’ due to discomfort.
  • Feeling a clicking or grinding sensation in your pelvic/pubic area.
  • Pain during normal activities and/or pain during intercourse.
  • Difficulty lying down on your side, which can be worsened by rolling over in bed.

Six Ways to Help Manage Pelvic Girdle Pain

Avoid Movements that Involve Hip Abduction (Separating of Your Legs):

Pain is usually made worse when separating your legs, so try and keep them together as often as you can. Think of how you walk when you wear a tight pencil skirt – keeping your knees nice and close together and your steps short. When getting in and out of bed or the car, sit on the bed and swivel your legs together, as opposed to one at a time.

When dressing, try sitting down on the bed or a chair to put your pants on, to avoid all your weight on a single leg. Changing sex positions to ones that involve side lying can be much more comfortable for your pelvis and low back. If you need to take stairs regularly, try doing them one at a time to minimise movement through your pelvis – it takes a little longer, but will be kinder on your joints!

Use Support When Sleeping:

From 28 weeks, it is recommended that you sleep on your side, although if you can get in the habit earlier it makes this adjustment slightly easier. Using a pregnancy pillow/s for can help to support the low back and pelvis whilst sleeping. Try using one between your legs to provide additional support to your pelvis. When rolling over in the night, brace through your abdomen and roll both knees over at the same time and reposition your pillow.

Support Braces:

Specific support braces, such as sacroiliac joint (SIJ) belts can help with low back and pelvic pain by relieving the pressure placed on your joints and adding additional support. It is important to know that this isn’t a solution but can help to manage symptoms to ensure you can keep your body moving throughout the day with less pain.

Ice, Ice Baby!

Using icepacks can help to reduce irritation and inflammation of the pelvic area. Apply to the pubic bone or to the SIJ (very lower part of your back/pelvis) to ease pain. This can be done multiple times a day and can be helpful to use at the end of your day, especially after being on your feet.

Strengthening of the Surrounding Muscles:

Keeping the surrounding muscles nice and strong will help to take pressure of the joints of the pelvis and provide more stability and support. Strengthening the low back, abdominal and gluteal muscles can help to manage the symptoms of PGP and prevent worsening as your pregnancy progresses.

Myotherapy and Massage:

Myotherapy can help to diagnose, treat, and manage PGP and the painful symptoms it can bring on. Myotherapists can provide an assessment of your pain and movement, treat the area of discomfort using massage and other hands-on techniques, and create a home management plan that may involve exercises or activity modification suggestions.


If you think you might be struggling with the symptoms of PGP, book an appointment with a pregnancy-treatment qualified Myotherapist to start getting on top of your pain.