Pregnancy-Related Low Back Pain and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Treatment

Pregnancy-related low back pain is experienced by over half of all pregnant women. In the United States it is thought of as a normal constituent of pregnancy. However, in Europe low back pain associated with pregnancy is treated. In the United States pregnancy-related low back pain is thought to resolve with birth. However about 1/3 of women who experience pregnancy-related low back pain continue to experience back pain for one year postpartum. Those women whose low back pain persists into the postpartum period are more at risk of experiencing comorbidities such as postpartum depression. In the extrauterine life maternal pain limits a mother's ability to securely attach with her child. Furthermore, interpretation of pain intensity is influenced by the type of attachment the individual has with her parents. Little is known how maternal pain may influence intrauterine attachment. Similarly, heart rate variability is influenced by pain and by spinal manipulation in non-pregnant populations. However, normal non-pregnant patterns of heart rate variability are altered during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, and little is known about why this happens or what this means.