Pregnancy and the foot
Ways Pregnancy can affect your feet
- In the later stages of pregnancy, you may tend to turn out your feet for stability. This can put undue stress on the tendons, muscles, and ligaments of the feet.
- When you are pregnant, the excessive weight gain increases the pressure through the feet.
- During the 3rd Trimester the body releases a hormone called Relaxin which makes the pelvic ligaments elastic ready for the pelvis to be able to stretch at childbirth. Unfortunately this also affects other ligaments including those in the feet and so the alignment of the bones can change. Often we hear ladies say “all my foot problems started after I had my children”
- As your baby grows larger, your centre of gravity changes from the lower back to the front of the body often causing more force and pressure in the forefoot causing problems there such as pain in the ball of the foot.
- A pregnant woman’s foot can also swell or enlarge anywhere from one to two sizes, causing discomfort especially from pressure from the shoes.
- Other common complications include swelling of the legs, varicose veins, leg fatigue, and cramps.
Here at Circle Podiatry we believe all expectant mums should be seen for a foot assessment so we can empower them to know how best to tackle these unwanted complications that can mar such an important and special time in your life and possibly beyond into the future.
We often intervene to provide orthotic insoles to help maintain the integral structure of the foot during that critical last trimester when the ligaments aren’t holding the foot bones together as well as they should be.