Anyone suffer from sacroiliac (SI) joint pain or dysfunction?

[amyff]

It hit me the last 3 months of pregnancy #1 and then all 9 months of pregnancy #2...and it has not gone away, yet.

What did you do that helped? PT...MD...Massage or Chiropatric care? Yoga...Pilates?

I went to a Massage Therapist when I was pregnant and thought it felt good (actually, it really hurt but it was a good hurt) it never seemed to improve my mobility.

It is getting super painful. I just got stuck in a pilates pose last week and I had to army crawl out of the room...just lovely.

All ideas are welcome!

[o_mom]

YES, YES, YES!

I had it horribly bad with DS1 - I had a month off before his due date and thought I would get all kinds of stuff done. So wrong..

I spent the last month of pregnancy laying in a recliner. There were days that I literally was in it all day. DH would pack me a cooler and give me the phone and remote and leave for work (he was almost out of leave for the year and wanted to save it for the baby). I would crawl to the bathroom. To top it off, because it is something that comes and goes and would always seem to disappear when I had my prenatal appointments.

Long story short - I went to a PT that specialized in women. They were very experienced with pregnancy problems, which SI joint commonly is. They gave me several exercises to do and taught me how to get it back in alignment on my own. They also had many suggestions on how to do everyday activities (hold baby, clean, get in car, etc.) to minimize the stress on the joint. With DS2, I started the exercises at the first sign of pain and was much more mobile and pain free.

I would call your OBs office and get a referral to a PT that is experienced in women/pregnancy, even though you aren't pregnant - just get some names. You may have to see either the OB or your GP to get an order for PT. Although a chiropractor could help, too, I have never used one and the PT is more likely to be covered by insurance.

[psophia17]

I didn't have it while pg with DS, but when my back was out recently, my chiro said that adjusting my sacrum was the thing that helped me the most. It took a good month to really improve, and I'm going to the chiro regularly to make sure it stays in alignment.

When I go, whatever it is he does to my lower back and pubic bone is awesome. I will be going next week, and I can't wait :)

[brittone2]

What she said :)

Disclaimer is that I am a PT. I have SI joint pain/dysfunction periodically and have had it while pg. Usually I'm able to get myself functional again, but if I was having serious problems I'd ask for a referral for PT and find a PT that had experience with prenatal/women's health specifically. Most PTs that handle orthopedics will be able to treat you, but if you can find someone who has a particular interest/specialty in women's health, that would be nice.

Chiropractic can also work but again, may not be covered by insurance depending on your plan. Find someone good...ask others, ask your OB or midwife, and look again for someone with specific experience/training in treating women who are pg.

Hope you feel better soon! I'm only 12 weeks and just had a bout of SI stuff flare up last night...doing better today though.

[Rachels]

Chiropractic and massage took care of it for me!

-Rachel
Mama to Abigail Rose
5/18/02
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_amethyst_36m.gif
Nursed for three years!

and Ethan James
10/19/05
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/bf.jpg


"When you know better, you do better."
Maya

[BaileyBea]

I am going throught this right now. I posted about bad pain about a month ago.

I was unable to walk for days before I sought help.

I saw a PT for 1 month. The PT gave me some exercises to follow to help realign my back. I can write these out for you and send them to you if you like. Just PM me if you are interested.

My sessions w/the PT are over and I plan on keeping up the exercises and then doing occassional Massages and the Chiropractor as a last resort. I say seek out a PT. The exercises and machines they had access to were a great help. Plus you insurance will probably cover it.

[brittone2]

Just a note...the SI exercises that work for one person may not work for another. Many of them are curtailed to what side is "out" and in what direction. Basically your pelvis has two halves, and either side can move forward/backward on the sacrum. So part of the trick to diagnosing SI problems is to figure out what side moved, and whether it moved forward or backward for lack of a better way to explain it. The exercises are often geared specifically toward moving that side back into place, but for someone who doesn't know how to diagnose what side moved and in what direction, it would be impossible to know what exercises would work. Just a little PSA...forgive me ;) Doing exercises for a different "rotation" of the SI joint could actually make it worse.

If you see a PT you will get exercises, etc. and if you see a chiropractor, IMO if it is someone worthwhile, they should also give you exercises to help stabilize the area after it is back in place...it IMO shouldn't exclusively be manual adjustments done by the chiro...make sure they give you some things to do at home to keep the area stabilized. Just my opinion ;)

[amyff]

Wow! You all were so helpful! Thanks so much! I am calling a PT tomorrow after I get a script from my OB!
Hopefully I am on my way to a more stable joint!

[brittone2]

Good luck Amy! I hope you can get some much needed relief!!!

[jhrabosk]

Probably not the cheapest route, but yoga and acupuncture were helpful to me...and good for my mental health, too! I've heard that chiropractic is good as well.