3 Pregnancy Back Ailments & Treatments

During the second half of my pregnancy, I surely said "rub my back" to my husband more often than "I love you." I'm 5'2", and my stomach was nearly as wide as I was tall. My back was paying the price for my rapidly increasing circumference. Fortunately, my husband's healing hands would temporarily ease the pain, but just like my in utero son's daily hiccups, the throbbing would return like clockwork the next day. I complained to friends, and they just nodded their heads with knowing sympathy.

"Somewhere between 50 to 80 percent of all women experience hip and back pain during their pregnancy," says Ronald J. Tyszkowski, chiropractic physician, founder of Pregnancy-Related Low-Back Pain Clinic at the Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, in Providence. While my back pain was a normal pregnancy side effect, which I managed with pillows, exercise, and massage, there are a few more complicated, yet still common, hip and back pregnancy-related conditions. We spoke with the experts to discover the three most frequent ailments as well as advice on how you can cope.