A Muscle Pain During Pregnancy
When I was pregnant with each of my children, I suffered from severe Charlie horses. Charlie horses are also known as muscle cramps or spasms.
Often a cramp occurred out of nowhere and in the middle of the night. It would hit suddenly and intensify as the calf of my leg began to form a solid rock appearance. My muscles continued to tighten as I screamed out in agony. It was then that my husband would awake to rub the pain out. What caused this type of behavior in my body? And how could I prevent it from happening again?
Muscle cramps seem to come from many different circumstances, such as low calcium or potassium in the blood. Muscle cramps can also appear when there aren’t enough fluids in the body, which causes dehydration and involuntary muscle contractions. Lack of circulation, exercising without warming up first, strenuous exercise without cooling down, being pregnant, wearing the wrong shoes on hilly or long walks, and yes, even overexertion of your body over a long period of time can cause parts of your body to encounter muscle spasms.
But muscle cramps do not have to take over your life. There are preventative measures that can help reduce, if not get rid of, muscle cramps altogether. Preventative measures such as regular exercise, stretching before exercising, cooling down after exercising and drinking eight glasses of water a day. That’s not all. Taking calcium or potassium supplements when pregnant, or when your body is lacking the proper amount, can also help keep those Charlie horses away. It also has been proven that eating vegetables and fruits high in calcium and potassium (such as bananas and orange juice) can cut down on the number of spasms your body has to endure.
So while you are getting your body in shape with preventative measures, what can be done with the cramps you are currently experiencing? When a muscle cramp seems to have taken over a part of your body, you can try rubbing the area to help warm up the muscle, thus causing the cramp to lessen. If that doesn’t work, try placing a warm heating pad on the cramped area or soaking in a warm bath. In more severe cases, doctors can prescribe muscle relaxants to help with the cramping.