Back surgery

Just wondering if anyone out there has had back surgery in the past and is pregnant/has been pregnant since... How have your pregnancies gone in regards to back pain and did you go on to birth naturally, have an epidural, have a caesar? I had a prolapsed disc- L5-S1 and had a lumbar discectomy just over a year ago.. Thanks!

A friend of mine had back surgery a few months before falling pregnant, and ended up having a (planned) natural home birth in her housebus. She did go to see a cranial massage therapist about midway through her pregancy to have a treatment on her back, as was in a bit of pain at that stage, but she swears that once she had that treatment the remainder of the pregnancy and birth were back-pain free.

I haven't had back surgery, but squished a disc in my lower back several years ago when horseriding and suffered a bit of back pain during pregnancy. During labour (natural birth in hospital - drug and intervention free) the pain of each contraction centred on my lower back and I hardly felt a thing out front. A few months after the birth I went to see the same cranial massage therapist, had four treatments on my back (as backpain was preventing me from sleeping at night) and have been pain free ever since - yay!

All the best for your pregnancy and here's hoping you get to have a natural birth.

hey again solitaire, you've been busy posting lately!!!
have you had any pains in your back yet? You might be lucky and get away with nothing happening!
I didn't have back probs, but had adhesions in my bowel that caused heaps of probs pre-pregnancy. I was really worried about them coming into pregnancy, with all the tugging and pulling that your abdo does, and was referred to hosp and stuff, but turned out all to be fine, which was very surprising! I hope you're this lucky too
Have you asked your MW? Mine referred me to CWH just to get a docs opinion on the subject. Maybe she could do that with you too?
Amelia

Hi everyone, sorry to bring this topic back but was just wondering if there have been any more experiences in this area? Seeing its been a few weeks since I've asked and there might be some new members since then My back has been really good so far so am mainly now just wondering about the likelihood of it messing up in labour or during pushing etc? A lot of American women it seems, automatically get a c-sec if they have had back surgery...? Thanks!

Hi Solataire,
I've had 2 back surgeries, the first was a discectomy on L4-L5 and then in 2004 I had a spinal fusion from L4-S1, so 2 levels fused.
The fusion was a great success, I was almost a cripple beforehand and now I have zero back pain and can live a normal life (though I am still very careful not to do anything to silly or streneous to it of course)
I am 14 weeks pregnant at the moment, it is my first pregnancy. The back is holding up so far but I'm starting to have troubled sleep when I go to turn over in bed. I don't have pain, just more of a stiffness or ache. It's a bit of a worry because I still have 6 months to go! Any weight gain has always made it a bit stiffer and so in the past I'd just exercise more and eat healthy til it came right, but of course that isn't going to stop me putting on 12kg during pregnancy so I'll just have to wait and see what happens.
I was trying to ask questions when I was thinking about getting pregnant too because it was a real concern of mine, and still is a concern to be honest. But it's one of those things where you have to take the gamble because some people are fine and others aren't and you don't know how you'll turn out yourself.
I've heard that it can be hard having an epidural after a fusion, seeing you've only had a discectomy so far hopefully you'll be fine. Closer to the time my midwife is going to get me to see an anesthetist and my xrays/ct scan so he knows what to expect before labor.
I hope your pregnancy keeps well, you're further along than I am so not long to go now. On the positive side, at least you've been through back pain before and survived it, and so you know you'll be able to go through it again if it comes to that. At least thats what I keep telling myself :)
All the best, Debbie