Back Pain During Pregnancy

Back pain in pregnancy is very common among women. Studies show that back pain usually occurs between 5^th to 7^th month of pregnancy. Women with pre-existing back pain are at higher risk to have back pain especially in the early stage of pregnancy.

What are the causes of back pain in pregnancy?

There are several causes of back pain in pregnancy, which are:

• Posture. Commonly pregnant women will have lordotic posture because of growing baby will make the uterus to expand. Then, it shifts the center of gravity and stretches out the abdominal muscles, which may putting strain on the back.
  

• Weight gain. During pregnancy, women will gain between 25-35 pounds. Thus, the spine has to support that weight means more work for the back muscles and increased stress on your joints. That is why women may feel worse at the end of the day.

• Hormone changes. A hormone called Relaxin will be activated during pregnancy, which loosen all joints and relax the ligaments attached in pelvic bone and spine in preparation for birth process. This make pregnant women less stable and cause pain when walking, standing, sitting for long hours, rolling in bed, bending or lifting.
• Stress. Emotional stress can cause muscle tension at the back, and the pain will increases during stressful period of pregnancy.

Ways to reduce the back pain:

• 
  Practice good posture. Slouching will strain the spine. When sitting, place a roll of towel behind your back for support and always keep these principles of good posture during standing and walking:
  - stand up straight
  - keep shoulders back and relaxed
  - hold chest high
• Footwear. Wear low heeled, but not flat shoes, and avoid high heels which can may
  
  further shift your posture and caused you to fall down.
  
• Heat and cold. By applying heat and cold pack to the painful back for 20 minutes every day will also help to reduce the pain. Start by putting cold pack, then switch to heat after 2 or 3 days. Be careful not to apply to abdomen during pregnancy.
• Stretching exercise. This will increase the muscles flexibility that support the back and legs. Be careful to stretch gently to prevent over-strain.
  
  
  
• Swimming. It is the great exercise to strengthen the abdominal and lower back muscles, because the water reduce the stress on your joints and ligaments.

Prepared by,

Afiqah Najihah binti Kamali

Lecturer, Diploma in Physiotherapy

Vision College

Road to Success

"It Always Seems Impossible Until It's Done"  - Nelson Mandela

A Master journey has not always been an easy path for me. I spent my precious time for 2 years and a half to complete my Master study in University of Malaya. The years passed with sleepless nights, tears and laughter; indeed, those moments have led me to the tunnel of light. Therefore, I would fervently say that this journey has taught me several important values, if not all, to pursue success in life: independence, risk taking, knowledge seeking.

Being independent is vital for anyone regardless of what they are doing – working or studying. As a Master student, I had to be extremely independent in a process of conducting research. Both success and failure are all at our own risks. In other words, delaying your works means that you are delaying your success. This powerful reminder has always rang a bell on me whenever I tended to give up. There were many times when I was lost in this journey. For instance, I was having hard time to analyze my data using the adapted framework. I did not know where to begin; everything seemed blurry to me. So I just headed up to library and mulled over everything again and again. I then decided to show my drafts to my friends who were in the same field as me (Pragmatics) to seek their helps to comment on my drafts. Their constructive feedback on my drafts had greatly impacted me to keep going. So, the value of independence really shaped me to who I am now.  

Apart from being independent, the Master journey has also taught me to become a risk taker. Beginning with a small step, all my big dreams lie ahead; in fact, it is beyond my expectation. This is the most appealing value I learned throughout my study life because I never ever expected that we, ourselves, could do beyond what we could imagine. It helped us to become more confident and well-prepared for anything follows ahead. For instance, I took a big risk when I decided to submit my final thesis for examination without having my thesis fully checked by my supervisor due to time constraint. In fact, I was still indulging myself in the library checking all the references for the last 2 hours before the printing process. At that time, what really moved me forward were two things: to waive off the study fee for next semester and to graduate on October, 2016. Of course, I was given a chance to extend the deadline, but I realized that all the outcomes grow tomorrow could only be planted today. It is definitely worth taking the risk.