Pregnancy update 32 weeks

I had my first physiotherapy appointment this week due to being told I have SPD at a recent doctors appointment.

I had heard of it before and as soon as I mentioned my symptoms to my GP - difficultly walking, pain between my legs and backache she told me it was SPD straight away.

SPD - Symphasis Pubis Dysfunction is a collection of uncomfortable symptoms caused by a misalignment or stiffness of your pelvic joints at either the back or front of your pelvis. It can cause severe pain around your pelvic area and make it difficult for you to get around. Different women have different symptoms, and in some women SPD is worse than in others. 

My physio appointment wasn't what I expected at all, I assumed I would be getting an actual physio session and a lot of other mums had told me I'd probably get a support belt to ease the pain. What I got instead was a group session with 10 other women, with a nurse just showing a presentation with information on SPD and what you should and shouldn't do to help with the pain.

At first I wanted to cry, I had gotten my hopes up that some of my pain might of been eased at this session, how was a presentation going to help me?

A lot of the other women felt the same, with some leaving 5 minutes into the session but the nurse informed us we wouldn't get a one-to-one appointment unless we took part in the group session.

I did actually find if useful, she gave us lots of tips on how to ease the pain including sleeping with a pillow between your legs and walking up the stairs sideways. She also told us not to hoover which up until then I was doing up to 3 times a day! (I have mentioned in a previous post that I'm a bit over the top with the cleaning), so I haven't been helping myself at all. We were also told that there is no way to get rid of the pain completely through pregnancy, it will disappear as soon as we have given birth. 

She has encouraged us to try everything she has suggested for 2 weeks before we make a one-to-one appointment. By this time I will be coming up to 34 weeks so I don't know if I'll bother as I've coped with it for this long so what's another 6 weeks. Although I have a feeling it's only going to get worse as I get bigger so I suppose I'll see how I feel nearer the time.

I don't have any more antenatal appointments this week so I'm going to try and get as much done as I can in the house plus I still have to buy the last bits for my hospital bag. 

Hope you all had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, we spent ours in sunny Leysdown, Kent with my in laws. What did you get up to?

Teddy wanted to climb trees like the big kids

XxX

Information taken from the NHS website.