Sore hip joints while breastfeeding. Why joints hurt after childbirth: the main causes, symptoms and treatment. Hormones in breastfeeding mothers

What a shame when, instead of the long-awaited relief after childbirth and a flying gait, another pain comes. My knees hurt, my legs hurt, my joints hurt, in a word - a wreck. Caring for a child turns from a joyful duty into a necessary hard work, when once again you get up with a creak and somehow hobble to the crib with a crying baby, stretching out your sick limbs towards the baby with a suffering look. Why does this happen and what to do?

How do joints hurt?

Most often, the feeling of "broken trough" after childbirth comes from the knees, feet and joints of the hands. It is hard to get up and squat, take the child in your arms, unclench your fingers. Also, a large number of women complain of aching pain in the back, elbows, hands, fingers. It is usually very difficult to get up in the morning and it takes time to get into the process of daily activities to disperse and stretch.

Pain can occur both immediately after childbirth, and after a few months. Even more mystery is brought by negative tests for rheumatism, arthritis and other diseases of the joints, and calcium is normal. For some, such a painful condition goes away on its own after 3-4 months, while for someone it drags on for a year or even more.

Possible causes of joint pain

- Change in posture, weakening of muscles and ligaments.

One of the possible reasons due to which the legs hurt after childbirth, and in particular, the knees and feet, is the increased load on them and the inability to quickly rebuild the musculoskeletal system. During pregnancy, there was a gradual restructuring of the body under an increasing load along with the baby growing in the stomach - the abdominal muscles and ligaments were stretched and weakened under the influence of hormones, the posture in various parts of the spine changed.

With the birth of a child, these changes did not disappear immediately, and the constant wearing and feeding in uncomfortable positions of a rapidly growing child in her arms add fuel to the fire. Changed posture, unusual and unusual physical load on weakened and overloaded muscles and ligaments when caring for a newborn force neighboring muscles to work to compensate for stress on the joints, performing work that is uncharacteristic for them.

At least 50% of all women in the postpartum period face the problem of discomfort and pain in the joints. This is especially true for young mothers who practice natural feeding of the child. Such a condition not only has a negative impact on the quality of life, but also interferes with the normal care of a newborn baby.

Not every nursing woman can afford to regularly visit the hospital for a comprehensive examination of the body, however, joint pain in the postpartum period requires timely diagnosis and comprehensive treatment. In addition, when breastfeeding, there are a number of restrictions on taking medications, so the use of certain drugs should be agreed with a medical specialist.

The influence of pregnancy and lactation on the state of the musculoskeletal system

The process of bearing a child is accompanied by a number of changes in the body of a woman. The global restructuring of the hormonal background affects the exchange of calcium, phosphorus and vitamin D3, as a result of which osteoporosis often develops in young mothers and pregnant women. During breastfeeding, the female body uses its own reserves to saturate milk with vitamins and minerals, so lactation very often leads to an aggravation of the deficiency of certain biologically active elements.

In addition, in the process of bearing a child, a woman increases the load on the osteoarticular apparatus, which is fraught with the appearance of joint pain in the postpartum period. Breastfeeding women very often complain of pain in the lower back, knee and elbow joints, as well as in the pelvic area.

The specifics of caring for a newborn baby plays an important role in the formation of joint pain. Another common cause of joint pain during breastfeeding is the extra weight that a young mother got from the period of bearing a child. But, despite this, there are methods that help a nursing mother lose weight without harm to the baby. We talk about them in the article at the link.

Pathological causes of joint pain

Before the onset of pregnancy or in the process of bearing a child, one or another pathology of the musculoskeletal system could have formed in the female body, which made itself felt during lactation. There are such pathological conditions that can cause joint pain in lactating women:

1. Rheumatoid arthritis. During pregnancy, the clinical symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis remain invisible, and in the process of breastfeeding, it is fully revealed;
2. Ankylosing spondylitis. This disease often develops in women during pregnancy. Clinical symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis are usually regarded as a manifestation of general body fatigue. With this disease, pain disturbs a woman in the lumbar region, in the joints of the hands, hip joints and in the lower jaw;
3. reactive arthritis. This disease is a consequence of previously transferred infectious pathologies. If during pregnancy a woman suffered an infectious and inflammatory disease, then during lactation she may experience symptoms of reactive arthritis.

If joint pain occurs, a nursing mother should pay attention to the presence of the following signs:

• Increased body temperature and signs of general intoxication of the body (including chills);
• Deforming changes in the joints, local redness of the skin and the presence of edema;
• Headache, dizziness, fatigue and general weakness.

These symptoms indicate the development of a generalized inflammatory process of an infectious or autoimmune nature. These clinical manifestations are the reason for the immediate appeal to a medical specialist.

Diagnostics

If you experience pain in the joints of a nursing woman, you should immediately contact a medical specialist. In order to make a reliable diagnosis, a woman will be prescribed the following types of examination:

• General clinical analysis of blood and urine;
• Biochemical blood test;
• X-ray examination of a particular joint (if necessary);
• Laboratory analysis for infectious pathogens.

Treatment

Not all drugs can be used for therapeutic purposes in women during breastfeeding. If, in the opinion of the doctor, the risk to the health of the mother is a priority, then the lactating woman is advised to interrupt natural feeding for the entire period of therapy. Depending on the cause that provoked joint pain in a nursing woman, a medical specialist prescribes the following treatment options:

• Lotions and compresses from medicines;
• Drug therapy, which includes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, glucocorticosteroids, chondroprotectors, muscle relaxants and;
• Methods of hardware physiotherapy (UHF, electrophoresis, magnetotherapy, paraffin applications);
• A complex of therapeutic gymnastic exercises;
• Herbal preparations that do not affect the lactation process;
• Therapeutic massage sessions.

In addition, for lactating women who suffer from joint pain, it is important to review the diet. It is necessary to discuss the composition of the diet with the attending physician, since nutritional restrictions should not affect the qualitative and quantitative composition of breast milk. In the process of lactation, you should not practice self-medication, since the use of certain pharmaceutical and folk remedies can lead to a deterioration in the general condition and adversely affect the body of a newborn child.

After the birth of a child, the mother's body changes in an instant: the ligaments are still relaxed, under the influence of hormones, the pelvic bones parted, making way for the baby, the abdominal muscles are stretched. As a result, the posture of a woman undergoes significant changes, the load on the knees increases.

Unfortunately, most mothers immediately after childbirth cannot boast of good physical shape, and carrying the baby mainly on one arm and feeding in uncomfortable positions add fuel to the fire.

Negative changes in posture entail a whole range of problems - some muscles are overloaded, some are spasmodic, some are weakened. Neighboring muscles try to compensate for the excessive load, perform work that is unusual for them, and also begin to hurt.

Wrist pain

Taking the child in their arms, mothers unusually strain them, spreading their fingers wide. It is unlikely that before childbirth they had to hold such a heavy “object” in their hands every day, and even fix it in a certain position. Under conditions of such an overload, the ligaments of the hand can become inflamed. The risk group includes mothers-needlewomen, musicians, i.e. those whose activities are associated with fine motor skills.

Traditionally, all diseases of the musculoskeletal system are treated with rest. A young mother can only dream of peace, but something can be done: for example, use a sling, which unloads her hands and at the same time ensures the child's need for mother's closeness.

Significant tilting of the head during feeding and/or awkward sleeping position can cause neck pain. Incorrect wearing of the sling causes overstressing of the shoulder girdle. For the same reasons, shoulders and upper back can hurt after childbirth. Keep the correct posture while feeding and wearing the baby, organize the most comfortable place for feeding and sleeping.

Back

The back may be tender at the bottom, in the lower back. If there were problems with your back before, perhaps now they will again make themselves felt. The fact is that the muscle corset after childbirth is weakened, the abdominal muscles are stretched, and this leads to overstrain in the lower back. The back muscles simply take on all the work of maintaining balance. Usually the muscular corset, which covers our body in a circle (plus the pelvic floor), evenly participates in this. The first time after childbirth, the abdominal muscles do not cope well with their function of maintaining posture. Plus, the pelvic bones have not yet returned to their original position. They will need a lot of time for this, sometimes up to three years.

Carrying the child in her arms, the woman leans back, increasing the deflection in the lower back (hyperlordosis), puts the child on herself, trying to relieve the load from her hands. This posture causes a cascade of problems in the lower body. In such a situation, active maintenance of correct posture, wearing a sling on two shoulders, and strengthening the muscle corset will help. You will find the most effective exercises for this purpose here, at the same time the stomach will tighten up.

Legs

Gluteal muscles, thigh muscles, calves, feet. The pain in them is caused by the mother's incorrect posture - a muscle imbalance occurs. Later, when the child begins to sit on the thigh, this pain can no longer be caused by lumbar hyperlordosis, but by the curvature of the spine to the right or left. The woman, as it were, pushes her thigh to the side, forming a “high chair” for the child. Frequent hip changes to carry the baby will ease the situation somewhat.

All of the above problems lead to knee pain after childbirth. In any case, it is recommended to consult a doctor to exclude a number of diseases that may debut after pregnancy and childbirth. The doctor may prescribe a treatment that is compatible with breastfeeding to relieve the inflammatory process, because it is he who is manifested by pain. Be sure to specify what physical exercises you can do to strengthen the muscle corset and improve posture. In addition, one of the causes of joint pain can be a lack of calcium. This point should also be discussed with the doctor.

What to do?

There are several ways to help manage joint pain.

– Correct posture
Stand up straight, take your shoulders back a little, do not lift them up. The chin is parallel to the ground, the top of the head stretches up, stretching the entire spine. The abdomen, buttocks and pelvic floor are tense, while keeping the body level. The chest is turned up.
While walking, regularly remember about the correct posture.

– Safe climb
Pay close attention to your movements when lifting a child or heavy objects. Lowering behind the baby, keep your back straight, bend your legs at the knees and hip joints. When lifting, keep the child close to the body, keep the back straight. Make the most of your leg strength. Buttocks and abs should be actively tense.

- Knees, especially women's, do not like rotation. After childbirth, any load with rotation can injure them. An example of such a load is the turning of a wheelchair. The body turns and the feet stay in place. The knees do not like such actions very much and can hurt.

– Stretching
Stretching exercises are the prevention of muscle spasms, they will lengthen your muscles, prepare them for daily worries in the morning, and help you relax in the evening.

All these exercises can be done right in bed, and do stretching for the muscles of the legs and back during the day, while the baby is on the couch or even in the arms of his mother.

– Muscle strengthening
Incorporate muscle strengthening exercises into your daily routine. Many of them can be done with the child. To prevent pain in the knee, you can squat in a special way - so that the lower leg remains almost perpendicular to the floor. Squat until your thighs are parallel to the floor. To maintain balance, you can hold on to the doorknob or other reliable support.

– Add rotational movements for the shoulders, wrists and ankle. Perform exercises until you feel a pleasant tone in the muscles. Morning ailments from excessive training are useless to us. I highly recommend getting a horizontal bar and a rubber expander at home. The horizontal bar, by the way, will soon be useful to the child.

Movement is life

The basis of the musculoskeletal system is in motion. Without movement, the knees and other joints will start to hurt. We have only one knees and hands, the price of their treatment is high.

We need movement like air, water and food. Just as a monotonous monotonous diet can damage health, so the monotony in daily physical activity leads to health problems.

The long-awaited joy of the birth of a baby in some mothers is overshadowed by the appearance of pain in the joints. According to statistics, every second woman notes that her joints hurt after childbirth.

Most often, pain occurs in the knees and hip joints. Less often. Two questions naturally arise: why is this happening and what should be done about it? Let's try to figure it out.

Musculoskeletal system during pregnancy

To begin with, it is necessary to dwell on the main normal changes in the mobile joints (joints) and bones during pregnancy. During pregnancy, the unborn child is completely dependent on the mother. It is her body that ensures its proper growth and development.

If, for example, there is not enough calcium in the diet of a pregnant woman, then its supply to the growing fetus will be provided from the bone tissue of the expectant mother. This reduces bone density and may cause pain in them.

Also, during pregnancy, weight increases noticeably and, accordingly, the load on the spine and joints, especially the legs, increases. And the hormone relaxin produced during pregnancy helps to relax the ligaments of the pelvic bones, thereby facilitating the process of the future passage of the child through the birth canal.

All these factors do not have the best effect on the condition of the joints and spine. And if the expectant mother had any joint diseases before pregnancy, then their condition during this period can noticeably worsen.

Why does it hurt in the joints after childbirth?

All changes in the musculoskeletal system during pregnancy occurred gradually. After giving birth, a woman's body changes overnight. It sometimes takes several months for reverse changes to occur.

Joint changes

During childbirth, a woman experiences an enormous load on the muscles and some joints of the back, parts of the lower extremities and abdomen. During the postpartum period, the posture is still changed, the abdominal muscles are stretched, the ligaments of the joints are relaxed. That is why the joints of the legs, especially the hips and knees, experience a great load when walking during this period.

household chores

An additional load on the knees and other joints of the legs and arms is given by the physical activities associated with caring for the baby and housekeeping. After pregnancy and difficult childbirth, the body is weakened, and even such physical activity can lead to injury and pain in the knees and other joints of the lower and upper extremities.

Newborn

In the process of caring for the baby, the mother performs many movements: she wears it in her arms, swaddles, feeds, bathes, etc. All this creates an unusual load on the spine and on almost all joints of the arms and legs.

Also, quite often, a young mother has to lower and raise a stroller with a baby, or it may have handles that are not suitable for growth. In this case, wrists often occur.

Wearing uncomfortable shoes, especially during long walks with a child, can cause pain in the knees and small joints of the legs.

Breast-feeding

As you know, the best food for a baby, especially a newborn, is breast milk. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months. And then, along with rational complementary foods, continue breastfeeding for up to two years or more.

However, with insufficient intake of vitamins and minerals from food into the body of a nursing mother, she may experience problems.

So, according to some reports, a woman during breastfeeding loses up to 6% of calcium reserves. And with a deficiency in the intake of calcium and vitamin D, osteoporosis can begin to develop. One of the manifestations of this condition is just the occurrence of pain in the spine and joints of the legs and arms.

What to pay attention to

It must be understood that all the causes of pain that have been discussed above are more or less physiological. And, subject to certain recommendations, they disappear on their own.

Sometimes it happens that joint pain after childbirth is a sign of developing arthritis or arthrosis. These diseases can occur against the background of infection, weakening of the immune system, which is often found in the postpartum period. They can also be the result of undiagnosed articular pathology before or during pregnancy.

In such cases, only a doctor should establish the correct diagnosis and prescribe adequate treatment, taking into account breastfeeding.

What to do?

In order to minimize all the discomfort in the body of a young mother, you must follow a few simple recommendations. Their observance will greatly facilitate the care of the child and the recovery of the body after childbirth.

So what is a young mother to do?

1. First of all, regular rest is needed, especially in the first few months after childbirth. And the more often, the better. The husband and other people should be involved in daily household chores (cleaning, cooking, washing, etc.).
2. You should rest in a horizontal position, placing a small pillow or roller under your feet.
3. It is useful to do self-massage of hands and feet.
4. Nutrition must be complete. It is necessary to include in the diet such products that contain a lot of calcium in their composition - cottage cheese, cheese, milk, etc. The intake of calcium-containing drugs should be discussed with the doctor.
5. The position for feeding the baby should be correct and comfortable. This creates less stress on the joints of the hands and spine. Such positions are usually taught in antenatal clinics and in the maternity hospital.
6. Make sure the weight being lifted is light. You need to learn how to lift weights correctly. In this case, the back should be straight, and the main load falls on the muscles of the legs and abdominals.
7. It is necessary to do morning exercises and feasible physical exercises. Their complex and volume should be clarified with a gynecologist, taking into account the peculiarities of the course of childbirth and the postpartum period.
8. You should adjust the handles of the stroller, wear comfortable shoes for a walk.
9. If, with the observance of all such measures, the joint pain does not disappear, it is necessary to consult your doctor.

You should also immediately seek medical help if swelling or redness appears in the places of pain, the temperature rises, or pain intensifies. All these manifestations may indicate serious joint diseases.

The birth of a child is one of the happiest events in the life of any woman. Unfortunately, huge changes in a woman's body during pregnancy and the burden of childbirth do not always have a positive effect on the health of a young mother. Large loads fall on the lower limbs - in particular, on the knee joints. Today we will talk about why knees hurt after childbirth.

Knee pain is a fairly common complaint in older patients, but knee pain can also occur in young women during pregnancy and after childbirth. We list the main causes of pain syndrome.

Norm

In some cases, the pain may go away on its own.

Pain in the knees after childbirth can be a kind of temporary stage of the postpartum period - that is, a variant of the norm. The fact is that during pregnancy, the increasing body weight of a woman has a negative effect on the lower limbs, including the articular surfaces and cartilage of the knee joints.

This is especially true for women who have given birth to twins or triplets, a large fetus, or who have gained more than 12 kilograms during pregnancy. After childbirth, there is a sharp drop in the woman's weight, so it takes some time for the joints to adapt to the new weight and load. As a rule, within one month after childbirth, in the absence of other causes for pain, discomfort in the knees should pass.

calcium deficiency

It is also a fairly common cause of joint pain. A growing fetus requires a huge amount of calcium to build its bone tissue, taking it from the mother's body.

After childbirth, a woman breastfeeds, and additional calcium is needed for the production of breast milk. In addition to pain in the joints, with calcium deficiency, brittle and layered nails, sleep disturbances and mood swings, especially the calves, can be observed.

Hormones

During pregnancy, a special hormone, relaxin, is produced in large quantities. This hormone is necessary to soften the ligaments of the pelvis, so that during childbirth the pelvic bones move apart easily and facilitate the passage of the fetus through the bone ring. But in the same way, the hormone acts on the ligamentous apparatus of all joints. During pregnancy and after childbirth, the knees hurt due to softening of the ligaments of the knee joint.

Inflammation

Inflammatory diseases of the joint, for example,. The reasons for this inflammation can be very diverse. One of the most common causes of knee pain is infection with bacteria, then it occurs. As a rule, any pregnant woman is examined for sexually transmitted infections, so by the time of delivery, a woman must be treated for chlamydia.

Autoimmune diseases

knee pain

This is a special category of conditions in which, for some reason, yet unknown to science, the patient's body takes its own tissues as foreign and tries to destroy them. One of these tissues against which the patient's immunity takes up arms is the articular cartilage lining the surfaces of the joints - it arises.

An interesting fact is that during pregnancy, all autoimmune diseases go into remission. This is due to the fact that normally the body of a pregnant woman should be tolerant of foreign tissues, because the fetus is half a foreign object for the expectant mother. But after the birth of a child, the forces of immunity begin to attack their own tissues with renewed vigor - an exacerbation of rheumatoid arthritis occurs.

Diagnostics

If knee pain is observed in a young mother for more than one month and is accompanied by fever, swelling and redness of the skin over the joint, you should consult a doctor or. You can start the examination with a general practitioner. The therapist, as necessary, can send a young mother for a consultation with a rheumatologist or, if chlamydial arthritis is suspected, to a venereologist.

The necessary block of examinations for pain in the knee joints:

As necessary, the attending physician may prescribe additional studies, taking into account the specific clinical situation.

Treatment

Of course, the doctor should deal with the treatment of joint diseases. Be sure to tell the doctor that you have recently had a birth and that the patient is breastfeeding.

Treatment is prescribed according to the cause of knee pain. Unfortunately, a very large list of drugs for the treatment of various arthritis and joints is contraindicated in breastfeeding. Therefore, it is very important to discuss these issues with your doctor, specifying how urgently you need to start treatment and, accordingly, stop breastfeeding.

Solely for the purpose of familiarization, we will provide a list of the most commonly used drugs:

1. Calcium preparations are one of the few medicines not only permitted, but also necessary for a nursing mother. It is possible to compensate for the lack of calcium by containing this trace element.
2. - chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine - substances that have a nutritional, protective and restorative effect on articular cartilage. These medicines should not be used during lactation.
3. Anti-inflammatory drugs - most often NSAIDs or -, and others in the form of tablets and capsules for oral administration and ointments and creams for external use. Means for topical use are allowed to be taken by nursing mothers.
4. Herbal preparations for external and internal use - soy, neem, basil, extracts of green tea, comfrey, cinquefoil and others. These drugs can be used during lactation after individual consultation with a doctor.
5. , including calcium, vitamin D, omega-three fatty acids, B vitamins, selenium and boron. Such complexes may well be used by expectant and accomplished mothers.
6. Specialized drugs for the treatment of arthritis, including autoimmune. This is a wide group of drugs prescribed by a rheumatologist. It includes glucocorticosteroids, cytostatics and other basic drugs. Such drugs have side effects, they are contraindicated during breastfeeding, and can only be used as directed by a doctor.

Helper methods:

In the treatment of joint pain in a nursing mother, an individual approach and coordinated work of the patient and the doctor are very important.