Despatches from a mother who started late (and is running to catch up)

The good news - it's treatable

Went for physio yesterday at this excellent establishment for my pelvic pain, one of the less welcome legacies from pregnancy. The physios there have won a well-deserved reputation for working wonders in women's health by usng a pioneering range of techniques for treating pelvic pain both during and after pregnancy. I've heard only good things about the practice and it was easy to see why people speak so highly of them. After two treatments I'm now able to get up from a chair and walk, no longer any pain involved.

Physiotherapist and founder Helen Thomson set up her practice more than 15 years ago after study overseas introduced her to innovative methods of treating pelvic pain. She realised that techniques available in this country weren't as effective as those she'd seen in other countries and so established Thomson Physiotherapy, now based in a tiny village near Falkirk in Scotland.

It was an old friend, co-founder of the Pelvic Partnership, a charity to help women with this condition, who chivvied me into going for physio. When she first suggested the idea, I explained I'd already been to see hospital physios, all of whom were very nice and who had given me exercises and advice. Not good enough, she said. "You need hands-on therapy. This condition is treatable. Phone around and find people who will do hands-on manual treatment."

As I was saying in an earlier posting, there's a common misconception that no treatment exists for pelvic pain in pregnancy and that prolonged pain and immobility is something people just have to endure until delivery. Or even beyond. Wonderful and supportive though my doctors in pregnancy were, none of them told me that my shuffling, hobbling gait was something that could be treated. In fact, appropriate and early physiotherapy, using manual techniques, can minimise pain and keep women mobile throughout pregnancy. Sadly, this type of physio isn't yet widely available in the NHS, for all its many strengths.

A new charity, called PINS, set up in 2007 by GP Moira Finlayson following her own battles with pelvic pain in pregnancy, is working to promote awareness of the problem (also sometimes known as SPD), and to support women and their families affected by the condition. Their site includes intelligent, thoughtful accounts of what it's like to live with pelvic pain and is well worth a visit.

Posted 08 January 2009 11:07

Pregnancy Pelvic girdle pain/SPD

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