It’s important to feel you’re listened to, that you’re heard and your point of view and concerns are respected.

It can be difficult to get your point across or to challenge a healthcare professional whom you feel is not taking your symptoms seriously. To help with this you could:

• use our free toolkit, “Talking about your pelvic girdle pain”
• take someone with you to your appointment to help get your point across
• prepare some notes beforehand to help you remember what you want to say, you could even give the notes to your healthcare professional outlining your symptoms and their impact on you
• take along information about PGP such as our Stickmum leaflet 

This may be all you need to get your message across. It can also take the pressure off you to explain about PGP in detail. 

Ask for a second opinion.

If you feel your GP, consultant or midwife doesn’t take your symptoms seriously and/or is reluctant to refer you for treatment, you could make an appointment with a different clinician. 

We have heard from many women that unfortunately it may take several attempts to get a referral for NHS manual therapy. 

Women are referred to general NHS physiotherapists, women’s health physiotherapists or back pain clinics with varying success.  Look for NHS treatment from an experienced physiotherapist who has undertaken extra training about treating PGP. This may include sports physiotherapists who have expertise in joint treatments.  Osteopaths and chiropractors can also provide successful treatment, but this will not normally be available on the NHS.

You can ask your GP specifically: “Will you please refer me to a physiotherapist who specialises in treating pelvic joint and back pain with manual therapy?”

There are many private physiotherapists, osteopaths and chiropractors who are offering treatment for pregnancy-related PGP. 

If you are seeing a private practitioner but you haven’t noticed an improvement in your condition since starting treatment it may be worth asking for a change in your treatment plan (i.e. seeing if they can try a new approach) or seeing someone else. 

While it’s normal to feel a bit sore after hands-on treatment, but if the treatment is aggravating your pain it is also worth trying something new. Some of our service users have had to try a couple of different practitioners before becoming pain-free. 

You can find out more on our page about when treatment isn’t helping:

Treatment is not helping

You can find a different private practitioner on our list of recommended practitioners:

Recommended practitioners

Try to discuss any worries with your midwife and include information about your PGP in your birth plan.  If you’re not happy with the response, you can ask to see the Consultant Midwife, a specialist midwife who offers extra help in planning labour and birth. 

Find out more about planning for labour and birth here:

Preparing for birth

If you feel your choices in labour aren’t being supported, you can contact Birthrights or AIMS for advice.