The association between pregnancy-related pelvic and low back pain and lumbar proprioception: an observational study

Abstract

Many women experience pelvic and low back pain during and after pregnancy. Low back pain is often related to an impaired proprioception, but also other mechanisms could be responsible for low back pain during and after pregnancy. We hypothesized that women with pelvic and low back pain during and after pregnancy have an impaired proprioception, in terms of self-reported back-specific awareness. Furthermore, we assumed that pregnant and postpartum women with pelvic and low back pain have a higher risk for incontinence. In our study we found a relation between pelvic and low back pain and an impaired proprioception in the prenatal and postnatal women. We also could see that women, who followed physiotherapy prenatal, have a higher risk for having pelvic and low back pain postpartum. Another interesting finding was that there is a relation between pelvic and low back pain and urinary incontinence in this population.