How to Take Care of Yourself During Pregnancy
How to Take Care of Yourself During Pregnancy
Pregnancy-related pain, hormonal shifts, movement, what to watch for, and more.
Pregnancy asks a lot of your body. Your joints loosen, your center of gravity shifts, your hormones surge more than once, and the way you've always moved may suddenly feel unfamiliar. None of that means something is wrong. It means your body is doing exactly what it's designed to do.
Pregnancy-related pain is also far more common than most people expect. Research suggests that roughly half of pregnant women experience some form of lumbopelvic pain, and about 20% of that group goes on to experience pelvic girdle pain specifically (Burani et al., 2023). Understanding why this happens, and how to move through it, makes the difference between fearing your body's changes and working with them.
Two Big Hormonal Shifts to Know About
There are two points in pregnancy where your body goes through a significant hormonal shift that changes how it feels to move: around week 10, and again around week 30.
After week 10: Relaxin, a hormone that loosens your ligaments to prepare your body for birth, increases significantly. Your SI (sacroiliac) joint and pelvic floor are already working hard to support the changes happening in your pelvis, and that added ligament laxity means they're more easily irritated. Increased joint laxity during this window is well documented in the exercise-prescription literature, which is part of why guidelines for pregnant exercisers differ meaningfully from general population guidelines (Mottola, 2002). This is the point where it's worth becoming more mindful of how you move, not because your body is weaker, but because it's more sensitive.
After week 30: A second significant hormonal influx hits. Combined with the added weight of your growing baby, this is when things can start to feel genuinely unstable. Your hips are opening, your uterus is changing shape and position, and even your ribs have to shift to make room. On top of that, more of your blood volume is being directed toward your baby, which means your body has less in reserve for recovery. It's normal to need more rest than you used to.
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Movement: What to Watch For
You don't have to stop moving during pregnancy. Current guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommend that healthy pregnant women get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week (ACOG, 2020). What changes is how you move. A few things our chiropractors and physical therapist want every pregnant patient to know:
Be cautious with deep lateral or forward lunges. Moving too far out of your body's midline can pull your pubic bone out of alignment and irritate the SI joint, which can mean a significant amount of pain.
Stick with movement your body already knows. This isn't the time to start a brand-new activity you weren't doing before pregnancy. Established exercise routines can generally continue with modification, but new, unfamiliar, or high-intensity activity adds extra demand to a body already adapting in real time (ACOG, 2020; Mottola, 2002).
Be mindful with heavy lifting, especially after week 30. This isn't about weakness. It's about instability. Your body is intentionally loosening up for birth, and that changes how much load your joints can absorb safely.
Give yourself permission to modify. Strength and mindfulness aren't opposites. You can still feel strong and capable while adjusting how you move.
You Don't Have to Figure This Out Alone
This is exactly why prenatal chiropractic and physical therapy exist together under one roof at Withn. Dr. Emily has personally been through pregnancy, delivery, and newborn care three times over, so her care comes from lived experience as well as clinical training. Alongside Dr. Taylor, she can help address the pain and misalignment that comes with a shifting pelvis and spine, while physical therapy, like the work our PT, Anna, does with patients, helps you build and maintain strength safely, with a plan that adjusts as your body does.
And a practical note: if you've already met your insurance deductible this year, this is often the most affordable time to start prenatal care you might have been putting off.
The Takeaway
Pregnancy isn't something to push through. It's something to be supported through. Your body is doing something extraordinary, and it deserves care that listens to what it's actually going through, trimester by trimester. That's intuitive care treating the whole body, withn.
Ready to feel supported through your pregnancy?
Book a Consultation at our Clinic, North Loop, Minneapolis
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References
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2020). Physical activity and exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period (ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804). Obstetrics & Gynecology, 135(4), e178–e188. https://doi.org/10.1097/AOG.0000000000003772
Burani, E., Marruganti, S., Giglioni, G., Bonetti, F., Ceron, D., & Cozzi Lepri, A. (2023). Predictive factors for pregnancy-related persistent pelvic girdle pain (PPGP): A systematic review. Medicina, 59(12), Article 2123. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina59122123
Mottola, M. F. (2002). Exercise in the postpartum period: Practical applications. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 1(6), 362–368. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11932-002-0049-z
