Wrist pain while pregnant

It is no secret that pregnancy can cause pain in various parts of the body. Everyone thinks about the obvious areas such as the back and hips, but the changes a woman's body goes through while growing another person can extend far beyond the obvious.

One surprisingly common area where pain shows up during pregnancy is in the wrists, forearms, or hands. I see many pregnant women coming in for massage who mention in passing that their wrists or hands are more achy than usual, many but often don't mention it at all because they consider it an odd thing that just happens and doesn't have anything to do with the pregnancy. While wrist pain can happen at any time in life, and can be attributed to things like receptive work, it can be triggered or exaggerated while pregnant.

It might not be carpal tunnel syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome is defined as a narrowing of the area surrounding the carpal nerve in the underside of your wrist causing pain and numbness. It can be treated with ice, physical therapy, and other home treatments, but in long lasting or extreme cases surgery may be recommended to ease the pain and pressure. Very often carpal tunnel is an easy thing for doctors or those using "doctor google" to hand down as a diagnosis when they hear the words "wrist pain". It is a common condition, and easy to dismiss all writs pain as falling into this category, however in pregnancy, there are several reasons that wrists could hurt and they are not necessarily carpal tunnel.

Spine reshaping = more pressure on hand nerves

As baby grows, especially in the second and third trimesters, it is obvious that the lower body, especially the back and hips can drastically change in shape resulting in the normal low back curve increasing greatly. This change in the spine's shape doesn't only affect the low back. A normal spine has 2 main curved areas like the letter S. As pregnancy causes an increase in the curve in the low back, in can push the curve in the upper back to also increase. This results in more pressure on the nerves in the neck and shoulders. Now guess what nerves are attached to the spine around the areas of C4-C5 (the spine bones in the bottom of the neck where the neck meets the shoulders)? Yup - those are the nerves that run down the arms into the hands. So as the upper curve changes, more pressure is put on the nerves that go through the wrists into the hands. This can often mimic the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, leading to an easy mis-diagnosis.

Other possible causes

• Many other things happen to the body including increased blood volume and fluid which can also cause fatigue and swelling in all the extremities including the hands and wrists.

• Another pregnancy related issue is that because of the changes in body shape, sleeping isn't done in the same position as usual which can make the hands feel different by spending a long time in an unfamiliar position.

• One final thing that can cause issues is the increased amount of a hormone called relaxin in the body. Relaxin is a normal hormone released during pregnancy to soften up the ligaments and muscles to allow the body to more easily make room for the growing baby, as well as allowing the body to "open up" more easily for delivery. This excess relaxin doesn't exactly target only certain body parts - it is released throughout the whole body so it can settle in and affect everything - the areas it's supposed to like the hips, as well as areas it shouldn't - like the bones in the hands and wrists. More relaxed bones and muscles can put unwanted pressure on nerves and therefore cause more pain where it wasn't before.

What can be done?

While wrist pain is one more thing that you don't want to deal with while pregnant, it usually can be managed.

• Paying close attention to posture, sitting up straight, and avoiding scrunching the neck, especially while looking at a phone or computer screen can help a lot. Simple upper body and shoulder stretches can help open up the upper body and ease the extra pressure on the upper curve and neck.

• Gentle strengthening exercises for the forearms and wrists using either a resistance band or light free weights can help keep the muscles that affect the wrists strong and aligned so the relaxin can't cause them to slip out of place easily.

• Massage can also majorly help with wrist pain; and not just massaging the wrists. Massage for the wrists and forearms can help calm the pain and help inflammation decrease, but also massage can help ease the tightness in the neck, upper back, and both the front and back of the shoulders caused by the changing spine shape.

Wrist pain may pop up unexpectedly during pregnancy, but it may not be as serious as it may seem. Additionally, it might stick around after delivery due to the positions of holding the baby while feeding, carrying them, etc. So while it isn't an issue that gets talked about as much as low back or hip pain, pain in the wrists during pregnancy can be quite common, but manageable.