Defining sciatica and mentioning its affects on pregnancy:
The nerve that extends from the lower back to the legs and feet is the sciatic nerve. This nerve is responsible for the sensation in the muscles of the region, i.e. the legs. This sciatic nerve, at time, tends to inflame, mainly because of application of severe pressure in one’s backside, or due to a previous injury. This situation is a very undesirable one as it makes one experience the sciatic pain. If this pressure is consistent and there is an unceasing pressure on this nerve, this can cause one to feel weak in their legs and the region surrounding the legs, such as feet. In some cases, numbness and even a sense of tingling was felt by the patients. One can relate this sensation to the one which you feel when you tend to stay in one position for long, and the legs/hands etc. are said to have “fallen asleep”. That sensation of pins and needles can be best related to this one.
Sciatica is developed by many females during their pregnancy period. Although, this criterion (of being pregnant), is not absolutely necessary. During pregnancy, severe pressure is put on the back and thus the sciatic nerve. This trends to cause discomfort in the backside, such as backache. If someone has a history of damaging the discs in the spinal chord, this can also lead to sciatic pains. The tissues that surround the nerve tend to undergo inflammation and a direct pressure is put on the sciatic nerve. A good example of this would be a case in which a disc slips out of its initial position and as a result tends to compress the sciatic nerve. As it is, pregnancy makes women more and more naïve to a disc injury, and thus, the relationship is pretty evident.
Most females develop this condition of sciatica at some point during their pregnancy and otherwise as well. It might just well be a coincidence that they experience discomfort when pregnant. In some cases, pain in the pelvis region is also misinterpreted for sciatica-related pains, this notion, however, is incorrect.
Symptoms
- As already mentioned, one experiences the feeling of pins and needles in the legs or the lower back region.
- Numbness
- Pain in the pelvic region, lower back, feet etc.