Falling apart - Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (pelvic separation) (Pregnancy Complications)

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Pregnancy Complications
Date:	18/08/05 (10383 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ummm for me easy labours

Disadvantages: Pain, risk of premature labour

I could never say that my pregnancies were easy, but the end results were definitely worth it. I suffered from two conditions during my four pregnancies, I’ve already written about the one that affected ME (but not the babies) the most, Hyperemesis (a severe form of morning sickness that lasted throughout my pregnancies) and now I’m going to tell you about the other condition, which not only affected me, but also affected at least one of my children.

Now when I suffered from this condition I didn’t even know it had a name, let alone that anybody else had gone through the same thing. The “proper” name for it is Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction, but I’ve always called it pelvic separation which I think sums it up completely.

-What is Pelvic Separation?

Before I can answer this I’ll have to tell you a bit about how the pelvis is formed. The pelvis is an almost circular bone, that goes all the way round and almost meets in the middle at the front. In between the two ends there’s a small area of cartilage and some ligaments. This cartilage (and ligaments) help stabilise the pelvis while still allowing movement.

Now in a normal pregnancy, hormones will make the cartilage soften slightly to allow the body to make room for the growing baby, and help everything open up during labour. But for some women they soften too much and too early, and the pelvis begins to separate, which leads to a lot of pain, and the risk of premature labour.

-My Experience

Now I’ve been pregnant four times, and in each of those four times I was affected differently. In my first pregnancy, I was only very slightly affected and far more concerned about the hyperemesis. All I felt was a some pain in my pelvic area, until the baby’s head engaged, when all of a sudden it felt like somebody was beating me up from the inside. Still I coped with this fine, and didn’t need any other treatment.

My second pregnancy was, in a word, agony. Remembering that I was being sick all the time, and in and out of hospital anyway, I was treated from the moment the problem started. And it started when I was about 20 weeks gone, with twinges in the pubic bone, that steadily increased until I had shooting pains down my legs and could hardly walk. Turning over in bed was agony, even moving from sitting to standing was a fight, and stairs were impossible. I might as well say now that my third and fourth pregnancies were the same, and the only difference was how I was treated by medical staff.

-My treatment

As I’ve already said, I was already in and out of hospital when I first began to suffer with pelvic separation in my second pregnancy. This meant that it was recognised and treated very quickly. Treatment was simple and comprised of three things (I had the same treatment with my fourth pregnancy) :

Pain relief - I was given some fairly strong painkillers, co-codamol and some anti-inflammatories. These helped me get some sleep at night, and took the edge off the pain.

Support - I was given a special support belt to wear, which basically held the baby up and so relieved the pressure and some of the pain, as well as helping stop me from going into labour once the head engaged.

Bed rest - Yep, I spent nearly 15 weeks on bed rest, taking things nice and easy. Boy was it boring, but the worst was that I couldn’t do anything for myself. Some of this time was spent in hospital, but eventually I couldn’t take anymore and my husband took time off work and I went home, to spend my time laying on the settee, sick bucket at hand only moving to crawl to the loo.

Although this treatment was boring, it worked and even though I threatened to go into labour from 32 weeks onwards, and was actually 2cm dilated from 34 weeks, I hung on to full-term (the only time I did).

-The Serious Consequences

Unfortunately between my second and third pregnancies I moved, and changed health authorities. The new hospital didn’t seem to have heard of the condition, and even though I knew what was happening when the pain started, they wouldn’t take me seriously. They even went as far as telling me that some pain was normal, even though I knew that what was happening wasn’t. Because of their refusal to treat me, I suffered a lot more pain, but worse was to come….

My baby’s head engaged at 32 weeks, the pain became unbearable, and I went to the labour ward as I knew the risks of going into labour. Again I was ignored, and sent home, then at 33 weeks I went into full-blown labour. The upshot is that my baby was born 7 weeks early, as a direct result of the separation. That baby now has a form of cerebral palsy, epilepsy and other difficulties (although we can’t prove that that’s down to his early arrival).

The strangest thing was that when I became pregnant for the fourth time, the hospital’s attitude couldn’t have been more difficult. Although I was advised against continuing with the pregnancy, once I’d told them I was keeping the baby, they couldn’t have taken better care of me. I was kept a regular check on, and as soon as the pain started so did the treatment. As a result of being treated so well, I went on to have a healthy (almost) full-term baby.

-The better consequences

All is not doom and gloom, yes I suffered pain (and sickness) during the pregnancies, but my labours were incredibly easy. As everything had already loosened, my labours were a cinch. I actually slept through most of the first, coped well with the second, the third just fell out and my last labour lasted for just three contractions.

-Lasting affects

I have very few lasting affects of the separation, occasional twinges of pain when going up and down stairs and that’s it. Of course, having had this condition in all my pregnancies means that if I ever got pregnant again, I would have all the pain (and risks), but as I’ve been advised to never actually have any more children (due to both this and the hyperemesis), that’s not actually going to affect me. But I do have to be extra careful about contraception, as I’ve been told on no uncertain terms that my body couldn’t cope with another pregnancy and I would be very unlikely to go full-term.

-Coping strategies

The best way of coping with the pelvic separation is learning slightly different ways of doing things. I couldn’t manage to walk up and down stairs, so I perfected the shuffle bum method of getting from one floor to another. It’s embarrassing (especially if you’ve got house guests), but you’ve got far worse indignities to come when you go into labour.

Turning over in bed, was an especially uncomfortable procedure, and in my case involved me sitting up, putting my feet over the edge of the bed and then turning myself round. But once in bed, putting a pillow under my legs helped relieve some of the pain, and was a little more comfortable.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, there will be things you can’t manage, so if you have help available use it.

But the most important coping strategy is to seek medical advice as soon as you start to feel pain that affects your everyday activities. If the condition is managed, then you will feel less pain (not a lot less, but still less) and there is every chance you will go on to have a full-term baby. From my own experience, without treatment, this condition can lead to severe debilitating pain and premature labour. And if the doctors won’t take any notice of you, ask to see a physiotherapist, as they seem to know a lot more about the condition.

-A quick fix

I thought I’d finish with one of the exercises that helped relieve some of my pain. You’d probably need someone to help you get up and down.

Lay a towel on the floor then get onto all fours (like a dog), now slowly and gently rock pelvis backwards and forwards. I found that although this never completely got rid of the pain it did make it more bearable for half hour of so.

Summary: Pelvic pain in pregnancy is NOT always normal