Friday, August 5, 2011

CHRONIC JOINT ACHES & PAINS (HELP!)

I need to know whether this is just me or if other woman have experienced post-baby aches and pains in their body as I'm starting to go a little crazy! Last week I started waking up with what I thought was carpal tunnel in my hands - I couldn't pick up my coffee mug by the handle to drink my morning coffee, pour the jug or grip the door handle to turn it for awhile after waking up and had numbness and tingling in my finger tips. Upon googling I concluded I must have carpal tunnel but then in the following few days I started to have aching in my left shoulder, arm and elbow which I thought could be from cradling Cohen while feeding him. It then started in my right arm and now it's in my knees. I have no real idea what is going on but I have been googling wildly looking for answers as I am waking in the middle of the night in so much pain I can't go back to sleep and I'm starting to feel like an old lady with arthritis. Upon returning to Google it looks like it could be the relaxin hormone causing the pain post-pregnancy and it could be connected to breastfeeding but I really have no idea. Pain relief is not doing anything to relieve the aching and it's not fun when it hurts to cradle Cohen to feed him his bottle and the whole time I am wishing he would hurry up because my arm hurts so much and I want to be able to put him down. 

Any advice would be so much appreciated and if you have had something similar I would love to know what you did to help it (and to know I'm not the only one!). Could it be an effect of the epidural from my c-section 5 weeks later? I thought maybe RSI but that doesn't explain the knee pain. Luckily I am going away for a week to stay with my Nana (so excited!) and I am hoping the extra help might give my joints a chance to have a break and maybe come right but I'm not holding my breath as the knee pain has thrown another spanner in the works and doesn't make sense that it is from repetitive movement. Can pregnancy trigger the start of things like arthritis?

17 comments:

  1. Doesn't sound good hun!! Maybe it would be best just to go see the doc?

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  2. Hi Haidee, I have never posted but i have followed your journey. first of all congratulations isnt it just the best to finally have your much wanted baby in youre arms? as for the joint pain you are not alone, it happened to me after both my pregnancies esprcially in the thumb joint, but i got pain in most of my joints, and i have had several friends complain of the same thing. I put the joint pain in the hands down to opening and closing bottles and doing up press studs on jumpsuits.

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  3. Hi!

    I had the exact same thing happen to me. This is really not unusual. A quick Google search of "breastfeeding and joint pain" will yield thousands websites of mothers complaining about this.

    There are a couple of things going on here. First, the hormones you were producing during pregnancy that softened your pelvic bones in preparation for birth, are still produced in minimal amounts during breastfeeding. Second, breastfeeding a newborn extracts nutrients from your body if you are not getting it from your diet. Not enough calcium? No problem, your body will take it from your bones. Iron? Same thing. Meanwhile, you feel achey and tired.

    So, I would advise you to continue taking your prenatals. I wouldn't take anything else without first asking your doctor. Glucosomine/chondroiten is often used for joint pain, but not advisable for breastfeeding mommmas.

    My pain was as you are describing. I would wake up in the morning with my fingers throbbing. I would have to hold my coffee cup with both hands. I was always dropping things. I had mild aches in other areas, but mostly in the hands. I would stretch my fingers and arms daily. This seemed to help. You might do stretching exercises that help your knees.

    Also, getting enough sleep and water is crucial!

    But here's the bad news...while my aches and pains abated, they did not entirely go away until my daughter was about 10 months old or so. It seemed to lessen with each month. Perhaps this coincided with her going onto solids & needing less and less of my milk. And so my body produced less & the symptoms got better.

    The material and research I've read on the internet seems indicate that anywhere from 6 to 12 months when symptoms get better.

    My daughter is now 28 months old and I still breastfeed with no symptoms.

    Best of luck to you! Your baby is so precious. Oh, and no, you cannot spoil your baby by holding him your arms while he falls asleep! Love, love, love him - they grow too fast & you'll soon be wishing to hold your newborn to sleep in your arms again!

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  4. I remember getting some pain due to the repetition of chores and looking after C but nowhere near the pain who are experiencing. I think it's time you went to the doctor and get it treated properly. I hope you get some relief soon.

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  5. The same thing happened to me...I was convinced my wrists would never be the same. I also had several achey nights...but it does slowly get better. I do think it has to do with breastfeeding...mine got better as we started weaning. Good luck!

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  6. Ouch sounds very painful but glad some mummies out there were able to help you!!!

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  7. Is it your 'let down' from b'feeding? I never got this, but everyone else in the world seemed to. I had alot of pain every b'feed in my belly, but that was from the ute contracting back to normal size. I took pain killers for that and not the labour? The joints etc, no idea. The advice you have from here sounds like its a common occurance.

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  8. Here from LFCA. I had terrible joint pain everywhere for many months after having my son 13 months ago. I did not breast feed. It started to go away a couple motns ago, but has gotten worse again over the last few weeks. As a separate issue, I also had a pinched nerve near my left elbow that caused pain from my left fingers all the way up my arm, shoulder, neck and to my left temple. (I carry and cradle baby on the left side exclusively.) Once I figured that out, regular massages through my upper arm, elbow area and forearm to relieve pressure made a huge difference. But the all-over joint pain, oh my god. And the doctor was useless about it.

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  9. I had something similar - it started up shortly after I returned to work, and I thought it was carpal tunnel, but my doctor said it was not (no tingling or numbness in the fingers). I can't remember what he called it - it was named after the guy who discovered it - but it's basically strain in the tendons of your thumb/hand. Aha! WebMD helps me out - De Quervain's disease. Anyway, it was pain when gripping things in my thumb and hand, sometimes up my forearm. The doctor said it was repetitive motion strain from lifting the baby. He gave me a brace and I slept in that and wore it as much as possible until it went away. He also recommended ice and Advil, but that's pretty much his response to everything. I think all the funky hormones don't help matters, but mine went away eventually. I hope yours does too.

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  10. Hi, I can highly recommend clinical pilates by a physiotherapist, I had exact same problems and it has really helped!

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  11. I never had this all over my body, but I've had it pretty bad in my right thumb. It's often hard to grip things or pick things up. I know it sounds bizarre - pregnancy hurt my thumb!! My OB said it'd go back to normal after Davie was born but she's 5 months now. It's a little better than when I was pregnant but it's still quite painful most days. I'd definitely make an appointment with your OB.

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  12. The same thing happened to me after Ginny was born. At first I thought it was because it was such a long cold winter, and that I was getting older. But I did some reading, and like other commenters have stated, it's pretty common for the first year after you give birth. A number of articles that I read at the time attributed it to how loose your ligaments get during pregnancy, and how it takes time for them to get back to normal. For me, the worst was in my knees. Ginny is now going on 9 months old, and I'm much better than I was. It definitely wasn't something I had ever heard of prior to getting pregnant.

    Hope you feel better soon!

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  13. Keep in mind that your ligaments are still a bit loose and recovering! VERY easy to injure them!

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  14. Oh sorry to hear ....that sounds painful...I am only 13 weeks pregnant and suffering mild joint pain whilst sleeping on my side...to hope it gets better ...

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  15. Get well soon, this is the last thing that you need.

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  16. Hi there
    I had my baby via c-section in June and when he was about 6 weeks old, I also started getting joint pains, and was hobbling around like a little old lady! I have been to a chiropractor, had massages etc, but not much relief. Funnily enough, the symptoms got a little better after a crystal healing ... apparently the pain can be caused by the spinal they use when you have a c-section. I still have some pain in my feet, and knees,(not as much as before) but my hands and thumbs are better.
    All the best!

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    Replies
    1. I'm sure you'll never see this Anonymous, but I'm so curious about your comment. You said that pain can be caused by the spinal they used during birth. I got a spinal block and now I have serious body aches and joint pain (started 1.5 mo after birth and still have it 6 mo postpartum) I've tried looking this connection up on google but I can't find much. Where did you get that information? If you read this, can you email me at aprilhoffmann AT gmail. Thanks!

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