Can an Outpatient Exercise Program for Pregnancy-Related Pelvic Girdle Pain Improve Pain and Function Versus Education? A Feasibility Study

Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. Introduction: Pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain (PRPGP) is a type of low back pain located between the posterior iliac crest and the gluteal fold that is exacerbated with load transfer activities and may be due to inadequate muscle activation and laxity. PRPGP affects a high percentage of pregnant women and can continue to persist postpartum. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility for women with PRPGP to perform exercises designed to target core musculature throughout their pregnancy. Exercise and education (EE) was compared with education alone (EA). Study Design: This pilot study is a longitudinal, 2-group, repeated-measure, time series design. Methods: Women with PRPGP were randomly assigned to the EE group or the EA group. Pain and function were measured with the Numeric Pain Rating Scale and the Pelvic Girdle Questionnaire (PGQ), respectively, beginning at 20 to 28 weeks' gestation for 5 total sessions. Results: There was a significant main effect of session for group, as both EE and EA demonstrated a decrease in current pain (P = .019), worst pain (P = .007), and an increase in the PGQ (P = .0001) over time. There was no statistical difference between the groups. Best pain was not significant (P = .174). Conclusions: Women with PRPGP improved in pain and function from their second trimester to 6 weeks postpartum regardless of group assignment. This suggests that this population may benefit from additional education and a targeted exercise program for core musculature. Future research is needed to confirm these findings. (see the Video, Supplemental Digital Content 1, which is the video abstract, available at: http://links.lww.com/JWHPT/A42).