Abstract

RHEUMATOLOGICAL DISEASES IN PREGNANCY

Sundus Adnan Jawameer*

ABSTRACT

Background: Pregnancy-induced hormonal and physiologic changes increase the risk of musculoskeletal problems in pregnancy. The purpose of this report is to provide a comprehensive look at the musculoskeletal pain and symptoms experienced during pregnancy. Methods: A total of 92 women. The participants who had given birth at 37–42 weeks of pregnancy (term pregnancy) and aged over 18 years were selected for participation. Basic demographic and clinical characteristics of the participants including age, body mass index, weight gained during pregnancy, education level, occupation, parity, sex of baby, and exercise habits were collected from the medical chart and face-to-face interviews. Musculoskeletal pain sites were defined as hand–wrist, elbow, shoulder, neck, back, low back, hip, knee, and ankle–foot in a diagram of the human body. The interviews with participants were performed to assess their musculoskeletal pain separately at each trimester follow-up visit. Results: The most frequent musculoskeletal complaints during pregnancy were low back The participants experienced musculoskeletal pain most in the third trimester except for elbow, shoulder and neck pain compared with the first and second trimesters (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The results of the study suggest that numerous musculoskeletal problems may complicate pregnancy especially in the third trimester.

Keywords: female, musculoskeletal problems, pregnancy.