Cesarean Section Worsens Condition of Pregnant Women with Pelvic Girdle Pain

Women with pelvic girdle pain should go for natural birth rather than cesarean, a new study says.

Pelvic pain is very common in pregnancy. Experiencing pain at the back of the pelvis is normally referred to as pelvic girdle pain (PGP). Some women experience pelvic pain immediately after conceiving the child, or during the last stages of pregnancy.

Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health initiated to analyze the factors that lead to the recent increase in C-section rates across the world. They found that many women prefer to undergo C-section due to their pelvic girdle pain.

According to the authors, choosing cesarean birth over vaginal birth due to pelvic girdle pain can prove to be more harmful than beneficial, as C-section worsens the condition and puts women at higher risks of experiencing chronic pelvic girdle pain after birth.

"Some women with severe pelvic girdle pain might fear that a vaginal delivery will be too difficult or painful, or will worsen the condition after delivery - even though scientific evidence is lacking," Elisabeth K. Bjelland, lead author of the study, said in a news release.

Researchers looked at 10,400 Norwegian women, to examine the after-effects of normal and C-section birth on women with pelvic girdle pain. All the participants were originally part of the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study and had experienced pelvic girdle syndrome by 30 weeks of pregnancy.  Information about the condition was collected through questionnaires.

Contradicting pregnant women's notions, researchers found vaginal birth safer than C-section. They found planned C-sections putting women at double or triple risks of experiencing severe pelvic girdle syndrome for six months after birth.

"One explanation may be that pain influences the central nervous system in such a way that the pain inhibition systems become less effective. Therefore, women with severe pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy may be more vulnerable to the pain associated with caesarean section, compared with women without pelvic girdle pain," Bjelland explained.