A mother needs all the care, comfort and knowledge to deal with the physical and emotional changes that affect her during pregnancy. Among all the other pregnancy related symptoms like a backache and headache, leg cramps are a common problem. However, this is a temporary condition, and you are not the only one suffering from this nagging pain that doesn’t go.
These useful tips will guide you in relieving leg cramps and manage your life better.
Cramps are the involuntary contractions or the sudden tightening of muscles present in your body. These aches are most common in the leg muscles during pregnancy. Many pregnant women get lower leg cramps that often strike at night, in their second and third trimesters. Fortunately, chances are these ailments will disappear after you deliver. In the meantime however, there are some things you can do to alleviate discomfort.
Beginning early in your pregnancy, practising regular alternate circulation-boosting exercises with a proper amount of rest (prop those feet and legs up!) can prevent cramps from developing.
Pain is a personal phenomenon. No one can feel it more than you do when you’ve spent all those nights awake trying hard to catch up on sleep in your cosy bed. In that solitary hour if your leg cramps don’t let you rest peacefully, it’s time to up look up the causes and remedy to ease your pain.
Right after conception, women generally worry when they feel mild cramps or a feeling of tugging and pulling at their tendons. Here are some of the causes of leg cramps during early pregnancy:
Experts aren’t sure about what causes leg cramps. “Charley horses”, the non-clinical name for painful cramps in your calf muscles, although extremely painful, are luckily usually brief.
The reasons for leg cramps during pregnancy can be many. These include
After the delivery, this swelling disappears within few days in the form of excessive sweating.
Cramping may be more noticeable when you sneeze, cough, or change positions while sitting standing, or even lying down. These spasms can radiate up and down your calves during the day, but they’re usually more noticeable at night, when fatigue and fluid accumulation is more.
You may wake up at night with sudden painful spasms in your calf muscles thinking it’s a dream. These pains are annoying, but they’re not usually a reason to worry, unless they persist and are severe enough to interfere with your daily life. If you are experiencing severe camps, do consult your doctor. If you have puffiness around the eyes, facial swelling or abnormal swelling of feet and ankles, or of one leg swells more than the other, then cramps could even indicate a blood clot.
The chances of leg cramps increase because of contributing factors such as a substantial increase in weight, pedal swelling and fatigue. These spasms travel up and down your calves at daytime, and can also affect the quality of sleep at night leading to stress or frustration.
Leg cramps are common in most expecting mothers and there are various remedial measures that can relieve and treat your cramps or prevent them from occurring. Apart from maintaining a healthy lifestyle, a positive approach towards life can take you a long way in dealing with it.
For some mothers taking supplements or magnesium rich foods (e.g. whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds) helps prevent leg cramps during pregnancy. Drink water to keep your muscles hydrated to prevent cramps. Magnesium for leg cramps in pregnancy is vital to keep your muscles strong. Do consult your doctor before taking supplements for leg cramps in pregnancy.
If you are wondering what to do when you have leg cramps, try these simple methods to help relieve or prevent leg cramps:
Unfortunately, none of the following methods can guarantee prevention of leg cramps during pregnancy. But here are some tips for preventing leg cramps during pregnancy to an extent:
Stress, indulgence in unhealthy food and lack of enough exercise are some of the common contributing factors for body aches and leg cramps during pregnancy. The natural remedies, therefore, try to address these root causes.
Try to eat a healthy diet by including foods that contain:
Exercise: Gentle exercises such as yoga, walking or swimming also help in reducing the severity of your cramps. Stay active by taking a walk, choosing the stairs instead of the elevator, or watering a small garden patch will help. It is advisable to stop for a rest if you need it. Doing light exercises can improve your blood circulation and reduce leg cramps as well as help you improve your physical strength to prepare for labour.
Exercise for leg cramps during pregnancy is recommended in antenatal classes that educate you about child-birth. Proper exercise improves the circulatory system to minimise water retention in the legs.
Cramps also reduce with massaging the area with aromatherapy oils such as lavender or camomile that are safe for pregnancy.
Address the requirements of your body at any given time. Do not over exert, and drink about 1.5 litres (8 glasses) of water a day.
Your muscles might feel sore and tender after the cramps for some time. Paracetamol can be taken as pain reliever although there is some debate around paracetamol’s effectiveness as a painkiller. Rather, take a warm bath instead. In rare cases, the cause of leg cramps or leg pain may be a blood clot in a vein in the leg (venous thromboembolism). If the pain is because of a blood clot, you may need to seek medical attention.
Call your doctor if you have:
Pregnancy changes a mother’s life. The key to a healthy pregnancy is to be more alert and aware of the associated discomforts. Staying physically fit and emotionally stable is important during this critical phase, so try to keep your mind off things by relaxing and looking forward to the future.