Week 11 : Relaxin’

Last week, I mentioned of the ache in my left lower back & glutes!  Given that I had a week of yoga, from the Kids Yoga Teacher Training, I was mystified as to why the niggle!  It began to become more intense, so much so that I started feeling like an old woman moving and hobbling around.  I hoped & hoped this wasn’t an ongoing inclusion of my pregnancy … and I’m only at 11 weeks!  I promptly made an appointment with my Osteopath.  (To find out more about what an Osteopath does, sign up here to access the conversation with my Osteopath about how Osteopathy can support you to achieve wholistic wellness, including in pregnancy.)

Luckily, it wasn’t sciatica (breathe massive sigh of relief!) … and more due to the hormone relaxin (no ‘g’!), which is ever more present during pregnancy.  (In females, relaxin is constantly produced, however declines in the absence of pregnancy in menstruation.)   During pregnancy, the busy placenta produces relaxin that helps your whole body physically become a bit looser, to help with the general physical expansion of being pregnant – during and in birth.  Generally speaking, relaxin … er … relaxes:

•  your musculoskeletal system, giving you more limber joints, particularly in the lower back and pelvis.  The lower back to give you more curvature to allow for the extra belly weight; in the pelvis and its joints, allowing them to stretch to get ready for and during delivery.  This is when mamas-to-be can experience the discomforting pubic symphysis ‘disorder’.  Yes, it is normally mentioned as Symphysis Pubic Disorder (SPD).  (Yoga can help to inhibit its inception and / or help lighten the ache :))
• the intrauterine ligaments, allowing the uterus to expand.  Your uterus grows from about the size of a tennis ball to the size of a beach ball, to accommodate your new belly inhabitant and also help in expelling your inhabitant when baby gets too huge for its residence … 9 months later.
• your arteries, to accommodate a much higher blood volume without sending your blood pressure through the roof.

With the increased relaxin in your body, this is when:

•  you don’t want to begin any new form of exercise, as your body does not have the memory for its  limits, given your extra flexibility of muscles, ligaments and joints.
• even with exercise that you have normally been doing, you need to be cautious with the level you exert yourself to, including over stretching.

To find out more about what an Osteopath does, sign up here to access the conversation with my Osteopath about how Osteopathy can support you to achieve wholistic wellness (other than yoga!), including in pregnancy (pre and post).

Here is week 11′s anatomy of pregnancy.

 

Namaste :).

 

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