Pregnancy puts an amazing amount of strain on a woman’s body. It wasn’t until my midwife showed me a diagram outlining what happens to your organs during pregnancy that I realised what our bodies go through – it is both fascinating and terrifying in equal measure. Effectively everything moves upwards and gets very squashed, meaning that your muscles have to work extra hard to support your changing body shape. Your body also starts producing a hormone called relaxin, which as the name suggests, causes your muscles, joints and ligaments to relax in order to help the baby pass through your pelvis. This can lead to lots of strange symptoms, and unfortunately back pain is one of the most common. 

Whilst my first pregnancy was pretty problem free, Neve was a little more challenging from the get go. I suffered with occasional back and girdle pain in early pregnancy, and at one point it was suspected I had the start of SPD. It wasn’t until my later scans that we learned that Neve was breach and hence why I’d been feeling so uncomfortable. She was well and truly wedged under my rib cage, head up and feet down, and had been for some time, leaning against parts of my body that were not used to being put under quite so much pressure!

Neve was born via caesarean section and whilst the procedure itself was relatively routine, I unfortunately contracted Sepsis and was readmitted to hospital. The infection lead to a huge edema (swelling) on the base of my back, which  pressed of my piriformis muscle (a muscle which runs very close to the sciatic nerve). The back and buttock pain this created was intense and excruciating, leaving me completely seized up and unable to walk. I was in hospital for 5 weeks before finally returning home, where I received extensive physiotherapy in order to regain my mobility.

For those who have never experienced pre or postnatal back pain it is somewhat difficult to describe. It is agonising. I consider myself to have a relatively high pain threshold but this took it to a whole other level. I was advised that I could take some stronger painkillers, but in order to do so I would need to stop breastfeeding, and this wasn’t something I was prepared to sacrifice.  

My physio suggested alternating between Deep Freeze / Deep Heat as a drug free alternative. Whilst they don’t STOP the pain, they definitely dilute the severity, by cooling the muscles and providing relief from back pain for up to 3 hours at a time. What many people don’t realise is that heat isn’t always the right method to relieve back pain, and that sometimes it is cold that is needed, particularly with trapped nerves or muscle spasm. I could have wrapped a tea towel round an ice pack, but trust me, once you’ve done that once and almost chill burned yourself you won’t want to do it again! 

The Deep Freeze patches are incredibly easy to apply, simply peeling off the backing label and pressing firmly on to the base of your back. The cooling affect is almost instant but slowly builds up once it has been in place for a few minutes. Once the patch has been applied, you can replace your clothing, there is no mess or residue, and you are free to get on with your day.

With Deep Freeze I didn’t have to worry about any nasty drugs entering my blood stream and affecting Neve, and nor did I have to worry about being made to feel sleepy or drowsy. Having taken tramadol once in hospital and feeling like I was going to nod off on the spot, it was something I couldn’t risk taking again – particularly when feeding a newborn. The drug free element of Deep Freeze means they are also perfectly safe to use during pregnancy.

As my mobility slowly improved I continued to use the patches as required, leaving me free to move around as best I could and continue with my day. The patches were non restrictive, and for me, the most important part of my rehabilitation was to keep moving, so this was another massive positive.

One year on, and bar the odd occasional set back, my back is almost entirely back to normal. I still have a draw full of Deep Heat and Deep Freeze products ready for as and when I need them, and would definitely recommend them to any Mum to be or new Mother who is looking for a drug free alternative to pain relief.

You can learn more about Deep Freeze, Deep Heat and the entire range of pain relief products in the range on the Deep Freeze website here.

*This is a collaborative post*

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