What Causes Lower Back Pain When Pregnant? - Top 3 Factors

And here's some great news for you...knowing what causes lower back pain when pregnant opens the door to preventative measures that can help alleviate or even eliminate the pain all together.   Understand that you are not alone with this pain. A whopping 75% of pregnant women experience some sort of lower back pain during pregnancy.   Here are the most common issues that cause pregnant women to have lower back pain.    

1.         Poor Posture

2.         Growing Uterus

3.         Hormonal Changes  

To begin with, poor posture usually becomes a problem during the third trimester. (Your muscles on the back are taking most of the strain)   During this time, you may find yourself standing and walking with your shoulders and hips thrown back. This happens to balance the extra weight such as your budding belly and growing breasts.   When all is said and done, the lower spine falls under tremendous stress.   In many cases, pregnant women wind up lying in bed, pulling their knees to their bellies during the third trimester in hopes to relieve the pressure on the lower back.  

The next problem that causes lower back pain when pregnant is your ever increasing uterus.   Here's the deal: Your abdominal muscles are weakened when your expanding uterus starts to shift your center of gravity and stretch to accommodate your baby.   As this happens, you back is put under tremendous strain. Your muscles have to work harder, and there is an increase of stress on your joints.   As these dominoes fall, you are more than likely feel at your worse at the end of the day.   As if that's not enough, your expanding uterus may be pressing on a nerve causing even more pregnancy back pain. Terrible back pain!  

Lastly let's take a close look at how hormonal changes create back pain during pregnancy.    During pregnancy, your body secretes a hormone called relaxin. This hormone causes your ligaments to loosen so that the baby can pass through the birth canal.    When this occurs, the stretching of your joints and ligaments is what creates lower back pain.   In one fell swoop, your growing uterus, hormonal changes and poor posture has given you the short end of the stick. BUT...With the right exercise and few small changes you can stop the pregnancy back pain.  It really can be treated and all naturally to.