Nearly three months postpartum I had finally decided that I was going to take getting back in shape seriously. I knew exactly the workout routine I wanted to do because it is tried and true- Insanity. No, this is not a plug for beach body or anything like that- I have loved insanity since having my first baby and the results are truly amazing if you can dedicate yourself to the workouts and eating healthy but, I digress. Little did I know before deciding to dive into the deep end of fitness difficulty that I still had a long road of recovery left from issues that arose during pregnancy.
So let’s rewind to the last week of my pregnancy. My prodromal labor had steadily been increasing in intensity, as is normal for my past pregnancies until bath night tweaked something in my body. Whether it was the awkward sitting on the floor while putting on little ones lotion or the amount of nesting I had been doing all day before that, but something made my sciatic nerve go off and I could barely put pressure on my left leg. Oddly enough though, while trying to hobble up and around, I began to have strong contractions that grew closer and closer. Was I going to go into labor finally? At this point, I believe I was nearly 41 weeks pregnant, which was longer than I had expected to go with this pregnancy! As I tried walking about my room I could feel the contractions pushing down and the pressure growing in the birth canal. I asked my husband to get the birthing tub ready, especially since I could barely stand on my gimped left leg. Once I got in though, the pain subsided and so did the contractions. The next morning I still couldn’t walk and my chiropractor was on vacation so I scrambled to find someone that I could see that same day and help with my leg and back pain. I was saw a new chiropractor that afternoon and within two days was feeling back to normal…ish. I started having prodromal labor again and on the day of her birth I spent the day breathing through contractions and eventually doing a “labor” workout to help things progress. It was my toughest natural birth and I labored leaning back in the birth tub (which is what I think contributed to my PSD) giving birth to a healthy, beautiful, 9.5lb baby girl.
The first few days postpartum were not as bad on my back as my last two pregnancies have been. If you didn’t know about afterbirth cramps, now you do. Think of slightly mild contractions or period cramps isolated to your lower back…if you winced at that thought, me too. But as I have learned through adulthood, if something is more mild in one area, typically that means another has to counterbalance. One of my first indicators of pubic symphysis dysfunction was the near inability to pick up my legs and walk once standing the first few days after giving birth. With Thea now being almost three months old and just figuring out what the symptoms were to look for, here are the main signs and symptoms of postpartum pubic symphysis dysfunction:
• difficulty walking (specifically raising your legs to take a step)
•pain when rolling over from a lying position
•pain and throbbing directly around the pubic bone
•difficulty resuming physical activity (for me, almost all physical activities outside of light abdominal training resulted in pain at the pubic bone)
If you experience these symptoms, make sure to talk to your doctor about pubic symphysis dysfunction.
I will be going to my GYN later this month (because military socialized healthcare takes forever to make appointments) and will hopefully have an update on a treatment plan.
Is this something you have experienced before? I had only briefly heard about PSD before, even after six babies! Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
