- (636) 296-8123
- office@abundanthealthstl.com
- 1804 Jeffco Blvd, Arnold, MO 63010
Sciatica is pain that travels along the path of your sciatic nerve, the largest nerve in your body. It runs from your lower back, through your buttock, and down the back of your leg. When it is irritated or compressed, you feel it as a shooting, burning or electric pain down one leg, often with tingling or numbness.
During pregnancy there are a few reasons it flares up:
One thing worth knowing: a lot of what gets called “pregnancy sciatica” is actually the piriformis or the sacroiliac joint referring pain down the leg rather than true sciatic nerve compression. That is good news, because muscular and joint-driven pain tends to respond well to the kind of care we do.
Call your OB or midwife right away if you have weakness in your leg that is getting worse, you cannot control your bladder or bowels, or you have numbness in the saddle area between your legs. Those are rare but they need urgent medical attention, not a chiropractic appointment.
Most pregnant women with sciatica are told to wait it out. That is frustrating advice when you cannot sleep and you have twelve weeks to go.
Our approach starts with the pelvis, using the Webster Technique. Webster is a prenatal-specific assessment and gentle adjustment of the sacrum and pelvis, and pelvic imbalance is very often what is driving the nerve irritation in the first place. If one side of your pelvis is rotated, the muscles on that side tighten to compensate, and the sciatic nerve gets squeezed as a result.
A visit looks like this:
Most of our prenatal patients start with weekly visits and we adjust from there based on how they are responding. If you are new to our office, you can see what to expect at your first visit
Sciatica is common enough that plenty of chiropractors will treat it. The difference in pregnancy is positioning and force. Pregnancy changes how positioning and force should be handled. We use supportive pregnancy pillows and gentle adjustments tailored to your stage of pregnancy, with no pressure on your abdomen.
Both Dr. Amy Horn and Dr. Caitlin Cross are Webster certified through the ICPA, which is prenatal-pecific training rather than a general chiropractic credential. We have pregnancy pillows and positioning as standard, not as an afterthought.
We are at 1804 Jeffco Blvd in Arnold, roughly 25 minutes south of downtown St. Louis, seeing prenatal patients from across Jefferson County and south St. Louis County. This is part of our broader prenatal chiropractic care. If your pain is more of a general ache across your lower back than a shooting pain down one leg, our pregnancy back pain page is probably the better fit.
Yes. Pregnancy sciatica is very often driven by pelvic imbalance and tight glute muscles compressing the nerve, both of which respond well to gentle prenatal chiropractic. We use the Webster Technique to balance the sacrum and pelvis, plus soft tissue work around the piriformis.
Yes, with a chiropractor trained in prenatal care. We use low force adjustments and pregnancy specific positioning, so you are never lying flat on your belly or twisted. Check with your OB or midwife first if you have vaginal bleeding, placenta previa, preeclampsia or a risk of preterm labour.
It varies. Some patients get relief within a few visits, others have it come and go until after delivery as their body keeps changing. Because the underlying cause is mechanical and your body is still changing weekly, ongoing care through the rest of your pregnancy usually works better than a one off visit.
Sleep on the side that does not hurt with a pillow between your knees to stop your pelvis rotating, use a pregnancy pillow to support your belly and bump your top knee forward, and try a warm bath before bed. If you are still waking up in pain, the pelvis itself is worth having assessed.
Most commonly the third, when the mechanical load is greatest and your centre of gravity has shifted furthest forward. It can show up earlier, especially if there was pelvic imbalance before pregnancy.
Not necessarily, and this is worth checking. Pain that travels down the leg can come from true sciatic nerve compression, from the piriformis muscle, or referred from the sacroiliac joint. They feel similar but they are handled slightly differently, which is why we assess before we adjust.
