Sore Tailbone Post Pregnancy - Anyone Experience This?

Hi W.,
I had tailbone pain at the end and after birth (C-section too). My friend, who is an ER Physician said that many women have a permanent pushing out of their tailbone from the pregnancy/birth. I have noticed that it isn't as "tucked in" as it used to be, but the pain did go away with some chiropractic adjustments. I would definitely try that first.
good luck, S.

Ok, so I'm a mom of 3 AND a chiropractor in San Juan Capistrano specializing in pregnancy, peidatrics and postnatal and I see this weekly in patients who weren't adjusted through their pregnancies. It can be really easy to fix. Sometimes as easy as one or two chiropractic adjustments....and the pain is totally gone. It usually come from hospital births where the mom is laboring and delivering in the lithotomy position (on her back) - it also makes labor much harder, since the tailbone has nowhere to go. I don't see it in homebirths nearly as much....where the moms can change position at will.

I felt the exact same pain 5 months into my pregnancy the pain mostly went away after a few months by itself I had a c-section too. Now my tail bone sticks out and i have beginning stages of scoliosis because of the way my little girl was all in my back and how the right side of my rib cage is more outwards from her head (but she was so worth it!!).

I didn't see the chiropractor and take yoga classes until a year after her birth and I really wish i did it while i was still pregnant or soon afterwards. the adjustments with my chiropractor and the yoga classes on their own was the best medicine i could ever ask for even if i had to pay for it out of my own pocket.

The pain is now completely gone and I have even gotten 1/4 of an inch taller from aligning my spine with yoga! even though my body will never be the same again i feel great! So I would strongly agree with Marla's advice!

If you have bruised or broken your tail bone it will take some time to heal.

Practice sitting up real straight, lift your ribcage off your hipbones and make sure you are on your sitting bones.

You may want to see a chiropractor, lots of them give free exams. I have a great one and he does free exams with xrays.
Let me know if you would like his number.

Your body is totally screwed up from carrying a child for 9 mos and now having it on your hip. What can I say? It will pass. Maybe start exercising (running or elliptical) to build up your muscles so that there is not as much strain on your joints.

Make sure you are using a proper changing table at the right height. If you are dressing baby up or changing baby on your bed for instance, it's too low and you will make your tailbone sore.

S.

Sorry to hear about your pains. However I can totally relate to you. I while delivering my 1st son (9 years ago) I fractured my tailbone through natural delivery. There really was no cure for that...just time. My suggestion is to continue using that pillow; sleep on your side or your tummy. Also you may notice when your sitting down and attempt to stand up, if you stand up too quickly there may be a really sharp pain near the tailbone area. Just go slowly when you stand up. Wish I could tell you that it'll go away really quick however it took me a while to have the pain really go away. Hang in there....

YES!!! I thought I was going crazy. My tailbone hurts all the time. I have not done anything to try and prevent it. I try not to fall asleep in a chair sitting up with my little one. I am just glade I am not going crazy. Thanks

I'm not sure why you would have a sore tailbone with a c-section, but I did experience that with my second kid. I had such a hard delivery that the doctor said I had broken my tailbone. It was probably two months before I could sit down without the doughnut pillow and another month before the general soreness went away.

Hi W.!

My sister went through this (& still is). Another mamasource mother told me that she too went through this & it was caused by her tailbone actually turning around & was in the converse position of where is should be. Her Dr's didn't want to say it was caused by pregnancies but, what a coincidence eh? She had a surgery & needs chiropractic corrections from time to time, & it much much better. My sister just goes to the chiropracter for temporary relief. Think about it. The lady who had the surgery had to have x-rays & they showed the inversion.

I just went through a whole thing with my tailbone hurting. I had strained some muscle or tendon in my lower back. The pain was horrible and I couldn't walk straight. Moving in and out of my car was painful, sleeping and getting out of bed was too, even walking took some effort. With the help of my chiropractor and lots of stretching excercises he gave me to target the area, after a couple of weeks I was all better. Yoga stretches for the lower back is a good place to start. If you can go to a chiropractor, I highly recommend it. Also, apply heat and cold alternately.
M.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I gave birth to my daughter 5 months ago and have the same issue. For some reason, I didn't attribute it to the birth...but thought it was just from carrying her around and toting all her heavy gear. I also have a wierd pain in the lower spine that is somehow connected. Have you thought of trying accupuncture? I haven't had the time to get in...but it always helped my back pain in the past. Also, get a great yoga dvd. The triangle pose and some of the twists seem to really release my back in that area. I would highly reccommend Stacy McCarthy yoga body workout. Good luck!

I had that pain not from chilbirth but brainsurgery believe it or not. They x-rayed me and there was no fracture. I think it was from sitting around recovering or a bruise during/after surgery. I went to accupuncturist and oseopath. It took a while for pain to go away but ultimately think getting off sitting on it for long period of time is what helped it the most but would go try both practices.

Go to a chiropractor tell him your tail bone is out. He may take x-rays to be sure but he can get it back to where it belongs if it hasn't made a new home.

This happened to me with my first baby, I couldn't even sit on it after childbirth. Everyone in the hospital told me; oh, you had back labor huh? well yes and no, My back was killing me and so was my belly. I wish someone there would have helped me out. Breast feeding sitting on one cheek is very difficult. It hurt to walk at first and made me dizzy. But it made a new home curved to the front of my body straight up and to the right. After living with this for a year still not able to sit on it. I was sweeping the floor and got this horable pain in my lower half could barely walk to the couch, couldn't sit on it, so I rolled myself on to the couch and cryed for help. The orthopidic toke x-rays told me where it was and gave these options, remove it or do ultrasound have it bulled down where it belongs then more ultrasound to break up the cartlidge that had made a new home for my tailbone. I chose to have it bulled back down.
To this day I can't sit on the floor for very long it's just to hard and hurts to sit directly on it, and it goes out often every 6 weeks or so I need to have it but back where it belongs by the chiro this was 17 1/2 yrs ago. Hopefully yours will not be this bad since you are having it taken care of earlier then I did. Best wishes to you, I totally feel your pain. If the doctor tells you; you can't break your tailbone. Tell him you'll pay for the x-rays and you don't want a picture of your colin or your intestines, because you are not constipated. I had a doctor tell my daughter this and the x-ray barely had the tail bone in the picture, luckly the chiro could see that it was turned slittly and adjusted her. Good Luck! let me know what you find out. J.

Well I don't know what others have had to say, but I too had a c-section and eventually I noticed my tail bone did not feel right...this was 6 years ago and it's no longer sore but it's definitely not right! It's crooked. I have never bothered to have this checked out, (it does not bother me overall, unless I sit leaning against something for too long or go down a bouncy slide and bounce on it wrong)...I just figure it was somehow broken during labor or delivery and now it's just healed wrong!
Good luck to you!

Yes! I also had a c-section and my tailbone started hurting terribly in the hospital after the birth. It was from sitting in a soft bed for so long (three days of labor, then two post-partum). Then I came home and spent weeks sitting up in bed nursing my son. I found that when I sat on the couch or a harder chair it was much better. I'm 6 months post-partum now and am finding it's just beginning to improve.

Hi W.,

This kind of pain may have both a physiological and an energetic component. It should be fairly easy to treat with acupuncture. May I recommend my friend and colleague Bruce Russ, L.Ac. in nearby Lake Forest? Tell him I said hi.

Best wishes,
S. I., L.Ac.

I had this problem too with my first pg and I also had a c-section (scheduled due to breech baby). I found it was from sitting and nursing my daughter from hours on end. When she was 6 months old I had the energy to work out again and the pain went away. Good luck!

Deb

I have the same thing!! I'm just going on 4 months post-pregnancy and it started right around the same time you said. I had my Kinesiologist fix it a few weeks ago but it went back. I had 24 hours of labor, an epidural and finally a c-section. It really hurts - especially when sitting for a while and then standing up. I'm sorry I can't tell you exactly why, but know you are not alone! ;) I kind of assumed it was from the epidural and that sitting around nursing and hunching over is aggravating it. I just started getting back into yoga and am hoping this helps. I'd stick to standing poses that keep your tailbone off the ground - forward fold, down dog, pyramid...anything that stretches the spine. Good luck!! I hope it goes away!!

Hi there - i had 3 vaginal deliveries and only had an epideral with the 3rd one. The first two were completely natural, no soreness, no nothing. However with the 3rd, my tailbone was sore for almost the first year. It was one of two things, the position of the epideral and how it was inserted or the position of the baby...which in my case the baby was born facing up and did a hairline fracture on my tailbone..ouch!

Since you had a c-section, chances are the epideral has something to do with it. goodluck and hope this helps ;)

If it hurts most right when you stand up, I had that. Cracked my tailbone during delivery of my first child and had pain for 5 months. Had 4 more kids with no issues BUT randomly when my youngest were 2 it happened again (with no known cause). Was made worse my a road trip followed by long plane flight and it took a year to feel better. So I think that even if the original injury was sustained during pregnancy or delivery, imporper sitting can make it much worse. I was told I just had to wait it out and I may continue to have these problems througout my life.

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I found a free youtube yoga videos for you since I also have really bad pain in my tail bone from a natural labor 1 1/2 ago. I'm willing to try anything to have the soreness go away.

Hi W.. I have had this problem now going on almost 3 years since my son was born. I have been from doctor to doctor and nobody was able to help me. It has gotten better within the years but i still get the pain when i stand up from sitting. I can't be sure of this, but i heard from other people that it might have been the epidural that bruised my tailbone during my surgery (c-section). I don't know if that is what happened with you but look into it There is really nothing that can be done unfortunately for this and it really is painful. It does get better in time though but hasn't gone away for good. Good Luck!

Hi W.,
My tailbone snapped in all 3 of my pregnancies. My babies were stuck on it as it was shaped funny and until it snapped, they couldn't be born. Had I realized, I would have had it removed. It was extremely painful and happened each time as it healed, thanks to a chiropractor. My insurance didn't cover chiro before my last pregnancy (we had moved) and the chiro said had I gone in beforehand, it may not have snapped. I prayed about what to do and who to go to when it happened the 2nd time as we had moved from Canada and God directed me to a wonderful chiro I could actually walk to from my house. He's great w/ tailbones. His name is Dan Spinato ###-###-####. Chiropractic is what worked w/ me. ALl the best. It is terrible pain when you have it. C.

Hi W.,

Sounds like you might be having trouble with your SI joint or something in the vicinity. I have been seeing a chiropractor in Encinitas who specializes in pre-natal and post-partum pregnancy adjustments. Before I went to her I could hardly walk. She has helped me immensely and I would highly recommend her:

Cherie Smith
Back to Balance Family Chiropractic
###-###-####
www.drcheriesmith.com

Best of luck to you in troubleshooting your pain.
~A. P.

After you have it checked, x ray, and find out there's no physical issue, it will most likely eventually stop hurting. My son is almost 40. I still remember how my tailbone hurt after he was born for (I hate to tell you) years and years. It became more annoying and I tried to ignore it most of the time. I still think when I was moved from the gurney to the hospital bed, the orderlies hit my tailbone somehow on the edge of the gurney. I was numb from the "block". I had a vaginal delivery; not a C Section. Anyway, I wanted to share my story with you as your question flooded my memory with this story I've shared. I wonder just how common this "tailbone"issue is?
Enjoy your beautiful child; the tailbone will eventually stop hurting and that's a guarantee! Congratulations.