Coping with back pain during pregnancy

On Wednesday I found myself Googling ‘back pain while flying during pregnancy’. Sitting in the airplane seat reminded me of my first pregnancy. I was suffering from back pain from around week 16 then, and I ended up seeing a physio regularly from later in the second trimester. When sitting down for several hours in an airplane seat with a sizeable bump, I soon started feeling the same awkwardness again.

During this pregnancy, however, I made it to 22 weeks without much pain, and what’s been different this time is my everyday schedule, which doesn’t always include sitting for long periods at a time. Last time I realised I had to be more conscious about sitting correctly, stretching and getting up from the computer often enough. I also did weekly one-to-one pilates sessions in the mornings, which really seemed to help me too.

This time my office is ever-changing. There are many places I like doing some work from, such as the Harbour Club restaurant, Gail’s, St Clements, the colourful booths at Purple Dragon, our sofa, study or kitchen table. I don’t tend to sit in the same place for more than a couple of hours at a time, and even though I don’t always sit at tables with the right height for me, I think the variety has helped so far. I also have the opportunity to break up my days, working first and then doing an activity with Baby Girl and working again in the evenings instead.

It probably won’t be long to go before I have to get to grip with more back problems again, as sitting still in a plane seat suddenly started feeling a bit troublesome now.

I just hope the man in a suit on my left wasn’t too annoyed with my on-off mid-air stretching exercises. Baby Girl certainly didn’t mind. There was more needed to cause any disruption to her Postman Pat time in the sky.

Tags: Back pain, Flying during pregnancy, Physio, Pilates, Pregnancy, Second trimester, Sitting correctly, Stretching