When you find out you are pregnant and you have fibromyalgia, you may find yourself feeling simultaneously excited and concerned. After all, your chronic health condition causes pain and discomfort as well as other unpleasant symptoms, and you may be worried about how it will affect your pregnancy and vice versa. Before you accidentally make one of the happiest moments of your life less enjoyable, get to know more about how you can deal with fibromyalgia during pregnancy so that you have the facts and information you need moving forward. Then, you can get back to being happy and planning for your future bundle of joy.
Do Not Stop Your Therapeutic Exercise Routine
When many women, fibromyalgia or not, find out that they are pregnant, they think that they will need to cut back on their workouts or stop their exercise routine completely as they do not want to do anything strenuous that could jeopardize their pregnancy. However, when you have fibromyalgia, this is an even bigger mistake than it is otherwise.
For many women dealing with fibromyalgia, their exercise routine is designed to help keep their pain and fatigue under control and to keep them up and moving in their day-to-day lives. Because pregnancy causes changes in the entire musculoskeletal system and can increase occurrences of fatigue, it is highly important that you continue your exercise routine even after you find out you are pregnant. If you are concerned that some of your exercises are not safe during pregnancy, you can talk to your physical therapist or physiologist to choose new exercises for your program.
Work With Therapists And Doctors To Manage Symptoms
While maintaining your regular exercise routine is important, your fibromyalgia may make it difficult for you to find the energy some days to even get up and go to work or run necessary errands. If this becomes a chronic issue, you may want to consider working with a team of different types of therapists to help you cope and develop strategies for your day to day life.
If you do not regularly work with a physical therapist or occupational therapist, you may want to start. They will help you to develop ways to physically deal with your fatigue and pain. They can also give you strategies to help you develop ways to get your work and activities done without completely draining your energy.
Cognitive behavior therapy can also help you with the emotional strain and stress that you may experience both due to your fibromylagia and your pregnancy. This type of therapy will help you to talk about how and what you are feeling, your stress, and any other mental and emotional struggles you may have. Cognitive behavior therapy can also help you with breathing exercises and relaxation techniques that can serve as pain management.
Now that you know a few of the ways that you can deal with fibromyalgia during pregnancy, you can better prepare yourself for what is to come and have as healthy and happy of a pregnancy as possible.
For more information, talk with your doctor or OBGYN, such as those at Mile High OB GYN.
Share14 December 2015
As a child, I used to spend my days roaming through the woods. I climbed trees, smelled the flowers, and laid in the grass looking at the clouds. My love for nature continued through my teen years, but when I turned 23, I began to sneeze whenever I left my home. I could no longer enjoy my outdoor hikes and I started taking antihistamines so I could at least open my windows on warm days. My allergies got worse though and I met with an allergist who completed a variety of skin tests. I started receiving allergy shots and my allergist taught me about natural cleaning processes and sinus rinses. The injections and natural treatments improved my quality of life greatly. Even if you do not want to start allergy injections, you have a variety of options that can lessen your symptoms, and you should learn what these options are.