Does Having a Baby Cause Back Pain?
It seems like it’s a weekly occurrence in my practice to field this question: My back has been hurting ever since I had my baby. Did my delivery have something to do with it? Is it the way I hold my baby? There is a little bit of a trick to answering this question: women want to know if any one of a number of variables surrounding the delivery has influenced how their back feels at the present moment. Problem is, variables happen every day, and so it is really hard to pinpoint any one of them and to say, “That’s it! That’s the root cause of the pain!” Even so, women will ask me about a wide variety of potential factors that may or may not contribute to their back pain: epidurals, duration or intensity of pushing, C-sections, posture, rapid labors, perineal tears, and weight gain. They also ask me about the way in which they are breast or bottlefeeding their babies, how they hold and carry them, and sleep postures after baby arrives. Let’s take a look at several of these factors in orde