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Charlotte’s story

Read about Charlotte's experience of PGP during pregnancy and her challenges in accessing treatment.

This is Charlotte’s experience of pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain (PGP), in her own words:

“PGP hit me like a truck at 28 weeks pregnant. I went from being a physically fit professional commuting to London to being disabled in chronic pain and unable to leave the house.  I quite literally got up one day and was unable to weight bear on my right leg. I still struggled into work thinking I had just over done it at yoga. As the day went on the pain become worse. I have vivid memories of breaking down on the way home crying trying to climb the stairs from the tube back up to the train station. I was terrified questioning what on earth was happening to me and was the baby ok?

Over the next 4 weeks my life become very hard. Physically, any movement was excruciating. I lost my independence with the most simple tasks: walking, standing to make dinner, popping out , having a wash, tidying the house, driving my car ,getting dressed or even being able to go upstairs. Mentally, I was trying to process loosing my mobility overnight whilst being pregnant.

This was meant to be the most special time of my life?! I was meant to excited and getting ready for the baby! Not crying every moment wondering how I was going to make it to the next day.

To make matters worse I found it hard to get NHS healthcare professionals to take my pain seriously. I was told on numerous occasions that this was a part of pregnancy. That pelvic girdle pain was very common and normal. There’s nothing we can do for you. The only way to get rid of PGP is to deliver the baby. Take paracetamol.  Keep using the crutches and consider a wheelchair to help your mobility if you need to go out. What about a bath? I have heard a belt is useful. All of this advice made me want to scream. I felt it was inhumane to tell me to just cope with the pain for another 3 months of pregnancy.  Didn’t they understand how bad it was?

Desperate, I took matters into my own hands trying a private physio which was useless. I was seen by a man who I felt was yet another professional who didn’t take me seriously and fobbed me off with some exercises. Exercises I of course struggled to do because of my limited mobility. This made me feel even more useless than I already did, a burden to my husband and a worry to my family. I then turned to clinical massages thinking that would ease my pain which of course It didn’t.

Frantically googling one evening after an unbearable day I stumbled across the Pelvic Partnership's website. Hope washed over me, I had finally found helpful tools, advice on treatment and a community of women who had experienced the reality of severe PGP. I reached out to speak to one of the team who told me PGP was treatable with manual therapy.

My heart leapt- could this really be true? It was hard to believe given the state I was in. As chance would have it the partnerships annual AGM meeting was happening the following week and I was invited to attend virtually. I am so glad I did – it was cathartic. I was greeted with so much love and understanding. Each of the women gave me hope from their own first hand experience.  Hope to try manual therapy. Hope to enjoy my pregnancy again. Hope to recover and enjoy motherhood as they all had!

From that meeting my life changed for the better. Hope restored I decided to get my life back. Via the Pelvic Partnership’s Website I found a recommended Osteopath and started manual therapy at 33 weeks pregnant. My parents took me to me to all my treatments. We took my nans wheelchair and crutches to that first appointment though as we didn’t know what the parking situation would be like and I couldn’t walk far on my own. After the very first session I could genuinely feel a dramatic improvement. I was still not fully mobile straight away but the pain had significantly reduced. I could  walk unaided albeit slowly but no more crutches! wahooo! Over the next 6 weeks I received manual therapy, improving each week. By 38 weeks preggo I was totally painfree and walking. I really enjoyed my last 2 weeks of pregnancy.

The ending to my story is a very happy one! My son was born via emergency forceps at 40 +2 weeks and I remain PGP free. The dramatic delivery was due to his head position in the end but my birth experience was still a positive one. A week after we got home I went for my first walk around the block in 3 months. It was truly magical to push my sons pram with my husband. I made it!

 

If there’s one thing I want you to take from my story its this – PGP is treatable with hands on manual therapy from a specialist. In my case it was an Osteopath. Its not too late even if you’re in the later stages of pregnancy as with the right practitioner you should feel an improvement after the first treatment. Don’t be afraid to try another practitioner if this isn’t the case.

I was incredibly fortunate that my workplace and especially my line manager were exceptional throughout this crisis.  I was able to work remotely, given emotional support, time to attend treatments and could even claim back 10 sessions of therapy via my workplace health insurance. As my life fell apart work actually became my lifeline as I clung to some sense of normality.

Looking back signs of PGP were there as early as 12 weeks into my pregnancy. I had aches and pains when climbing the stairs, getting out of the car and turning over in bed but dismissed them. I wish I had known the signs to look out for earlier as if I had the therapy sooner it might not have got as bad as it did! Reach out to the charity if you need to, know you are not alone and that you don’t have to accept to live with this pain.”

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