Sciatic nerve pain and pregnancy

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

I have an occasional shooting pain over my right buttock that extends down the back of my thigh.

I am three months pregnant (14 weeks), and this pain started after I became pregnant and my body started to change. My spine and tailbone are obviously more curvy, as it does not feel good to lie on my back on the hard floor.

Are there specific muscles to work, or exercises to do, which you can prescribe for this issue in general?

I have read some previous threads on sciatic nerve problems, but would appreciate a yoga therapist’s perspective geared specifically to the changes of a woman’s pelvis during pregnancy.

~Thanks~

#2

If you are interested in pursuing a yoga practice or a remedy for the sciatic issue within a yoga context… please attend a local prenatal class with a qualified teacher. The approach for sciatic issues during pregnancy is quite different as it must take into consideration the health and well being of two rather than one.

gordon

#3

Hi Purelight

I am a yoga therapist and I currently teach pregnancy yoga and childbirth preparation.

I see from previous posts that you are a very experienced practitioner and I therefore assume that you have discounted the possibility that the pain is caused either by SPD or SI pain, both of which can present in pregnancy as a result of the increased relaxin (which I also note you are rather an expert in! At least most probably more than me)

From your description it does sound like sciatica . The causes of sciatica in pregnancy are more or less the same as “normal” sciatica (L4-S1 disc problems or compression from the piriformis). Unless you have had an injury (?) I’d think the latter would be more likely to be the cause in a less experienced yoga student.

There are various practices that can ease sciatica in pregnancy – have you seen this article?:

http://www.yogatherapycenter.org/articles/Pregnancy%20and%20Sciatica%20-%20RoseMarie%20Roth.pdf

I have one caveat regarding the advice in this article. It relates to advice on p.20 in answer to the question dated Friday 23rd July 2004 (Sciatica in Pregnancy) which was a question originally posed on this forum, and you say you have looked already at these. With the greatest of respect to Mukunda I would not practice or suggest practicing backbends such as locust, dancer (not sure what sunburn is?:confused: sounds painful:eek:) in pregnancy, even for an experienced yoga practitioner. Very flexible practitioners are more in danger of injury from overextending during yoga practice in pregnancy due to the increase in relaxin, but I’m guessing you know that already

There are also some specific practices that I use for my students with sciatica but how to explain without pictures is the problem:)!

Wendy