Recently there was a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on NSAID use during pregnancy being linked to increased incidents of ADHD and other behavioral problems in children. Its not the purpose of this article to go into a big debate about this but instead offer 3 very simple, proven, and most important, natural ways of treating back pain during pregnancy.

1. Exercise

Despite what some may have thought in the past, more and more research and evidence is showing that exercise has tremendous benefits for both baby and mother during pregnancy.  Dr. Laura Riley, a well known Gynecologist and author of Pregnancy: You and Your Baby said "You need to be physically active during pregnancy. It has terrific benefits that are associated with a better pregnancy outcome and even shorter labors. It's a win-win for baby and for mom." In addition to these benefits, exercise has always been an extremely effective method for helping restore proper motion and balance to problems in the spine and surrounding support structures that are often involved with back pain during pregnancy.

2. Meditation

Among meditation benefits, pain relief is one of the more amazing ones. Numerous studies have demonstrated very clear, very real results for using meditation as a means of helping to manage pain.  The beautiful thing about meditation is that it is relatively simple and easy to incorporate into your daily routine.  More specifically relating to pregnancy, there are very promising studies showing a lot of other health benefits derived from meditation during pregnancy.  One of these studies shows that meditation can help reduce stress hormones, boost mood both during pregnancy and postpartum.  You can see this study for yourself here. Meditation has clearly shown some incredible benefits for women who are pregnant.

3.  Chiropractic Care

For some women who have never seen a chiropractor, the thought of seeing one during pregnancy may seem a bit strange or possibly even risky.  The truth is that chiropractors have been treating pregnant patients for a very long time.  There is overwhelming consensus among most healthcare professionals of the safety and efficacy of chiropractic care during pregnancy.  The vast majority of back, pelvic, and/or hip related pain during pregnancy is usually mechanical in nature. Chiropractic care provides a very safe and effective way of helping to restore normal mechanical function to these areas and ultimately provide an effective means of pain relief.  This is all done without the use of drugs or other invasive measures.

If you are pregnant or know someone who is, consider these 3 natural methods for helping manage pain during pregnancy rather than using NSAIDs or other pain relieving medications.