Pelvic Girdle Pain in Pregnancy: A McKinney Guide
Pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy is discomfort in the joints that connect your pelvis, including the pubic bone at the front and the sacroiliac joints at the back. It is common, affecting roughly 1 in 5 pregnant people, and it is treatable. Gentle, pregnancy-specific care can ease the pain and help your pelvis move with more balance.You stepped out of the car and a sharp, splitting feeling shot through your pubic bone. Rolling over in bed now takes a plan. Stairs have opinions. Putting on pants while standing on one leg has become a small, private negotiation with your own body.
If that is your week, you are not imagining it, and you are not being dramatic. There is a name for what you are feeling.
It is called pelvic girdle pain, and at Tula Chiropractic in McKinney, it is one of the most common reasons expecting moms find their way to us.
What Pelvic Girdle Pain Actually Is
Your pelvis is not one solid bone. It is a ring of bones held together by three joints, the pubic symphysis at the front and two sacroiliac joints at the back, all wrapped in ligaments designed to give a little.
Pelvic girdle pain is the umbrella term for discomfort in any of those joints during pregnancy. When the pain centers on the pubic bone at the front, you may hear it called symphysis pubis dysfunction, or SPD. Same family, different address.
Here is the part most people are never told. This is not a sign that something has gone wrong. In pregnancy, the hormone relaxin softens those ligaments on purpose, so your pelvis can open for birth. Your center of gravity shifts forward as baby grows. The joints that used to feel locked and stable start to move more, and sometimes they move unevenly. The result is tension on one side, a grinding pull, or that signature lightning bolt through the pubic bone.
Your body is not failing. Your body is adapting. The discomfort is the side effect of a system doing exactly what it was built to do, sometimes a little faster than your muscles can keep up with.
How Common Is It, Really
Common enough that you are in good company, and far more common than most moms realize before it happens to them.
Research puts the prevalence of pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain between 16% and 25% when symptoms are objectively verified, and broader estimates of pelvic pain in pregnancy run higher still. The UK pregnancy charity Tommy's notes that around 1 in 5 pregnant people experience pelvic pain. It can start in the first trimester, though it most often shows up in the second and third as the load increases.
The number that matters more is the one nobody prints. Of the moms who walk into Tula with pelvic pain, so many say a version of the same sentence. I thought this was just part of pregnancy and I had to wait it out.
You do not have to wait it out.
What It Feels Like, in Plain Language
Pelvic girdle pain has a few signature patterns. You might recognize your week in here.
Pain at the pubic bone when you walk, climb stairs, or stand on one leg to dress
A deep ache or catching sensation in the lower back, hips, or the crease between hip and thigh
A clicking or grinding feeling in the pelvis, sometimes loud enough that you notice it in a quiet room
For many moms, the hardest part is not any single movement. It is the accumulation. The way getting out of the car, turning over at 3 a.m., and lifting a toddler onto your hip all draw from the same tired account, and by evening the account is empty. And then there is the quiet part nobody says out loud. You start narrating your own movements in your head before you make them, bracing for the catch, planning the next step around a body that used to just carry you. That mental load is real, and it counts.
The goal of care is not to push your body harder. It is to help your pelvis move with more balance, so the same day costs you less.
What Helps, and What to Skip
The instinct when something hurts is to brace, freeze, and stop moving. With pelvic girdle pain, total stillness often makes the stiffness worse. The aim is smarter movement, not no movement.
A few things tend to help at home. Keep your knees together when you turn in bed or get out of the car, almost like your legs are taped at the knee. Sit down to put on pants and shoes instead of balancing on one leg. Put a pillow between your knees when you sleep on your side to keep the pelvis level through the night.
A few things tend to aggravate it. Wide, deep squats, long single-leg loading like climbing stairs two at a time, and pushing through a workout that leaves the pubic bone barking the next morning. None of this means you are fragile. It means the joint asks for symmetry right now, and you can give it that.
Hands-on care is where the bigger shifts happen, because so much of pelvic girdle pain is a muscular and nervous system story, not only a joint one. When the muscles around the pelvis are pulling unevenly, releasing that tension can change how the whole ring sits.
How Chiropractic Care Supports a Painful Pelvis
At Tula, a prenatal visit is not a quick crack and out the door. We work through your muscles, your nervous system, and your spine together, usually across 30 to 45 hands-on minutes, because the pelvis does not move in isolation and neither should the care.
The evidence here is encouraging and honest. A systematic review in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics found that most pregnant patients receiving chiropractic care reported clinically relevant improvement in pain and function, while noting that the overall body of research is still building in quality. We hold both of those truths. The care is gentle and pregnancy-safe, the response we see in the room is real, and we never promise a cure.
Our approach centers on the Webster Technique, a specific method for balancing the sacrum and the ligaments around it so the pelvis has room to be symmetrical. Both doctors at Tula are Webster certified and listed on the ICPA for Kids directory. Each visit pairs that work with focused muscle and ligament release and nervous system care, so your body can regulate, not just realign.
Most moms describe the first relief as space. Room to take a full step. A turn in bed that does not wake them up. The pause they did not know they were missing, and the first quiet thought of I feel a little more like myself again.
When to Reach Out for Support
You do not need to hit a pain threshold to be allowed to ask for help. If pelvic pain is shaping how you move through your day, that is reason enough.
It is worth getting support sooner rather than later if walking has become limited, if the pain wakes you at night, if you feel unstable or like your legs might give way, or if it is climbing week over week instead of holding steady. Early care tends to mean less compensation built up in the surrounding muscles, which usually means a smoother path back to comfort.
Pelvic girdle pain also has a way of following moms past birth. Persistent pelvic pain is reported in roughly 5% to 8.5% of people up to two years postpartum, which is one more reason birth is not the finish line. The pelvis that carried your pregnancy is the same pelvis recovering after it.
Getting Started at Tula
If your pelvis has been the loudest part of your pregnancy, here is a simple way to begin.
Book a prenatal visit. Tell us where the pain lives and what makes it worse, and we will assess the whole pelvis, not just the spot that hurts.
Come as you are. Any trimester, first pregnancy or fourth. The care adjusts to the season you are in.
Plan for hands-on time. Your visit includes muscle work, Webster-based adjustment, and nervous system care, all in one appointment.
Caring for the Pelvis That's Carrying You
Pelvic girdle pain is common, it has a name, and it responds to gentle, specific care. You were never meant to white-knuckle your way through the months your body needs the most support and tends to get the least.
If you are in McKinney, Prosper, Allen, Frisco, Plano, Dallas, or Celina and your pelvis has been making itself known, we would love to help you feel more like yourself again. [Internal link: prenatal page → anchor "Schedule your prenatal visit"] and let your body do this season with more ease.
FAQ
Is pelvic girdle pain in pregnancy normal?
Pelvic girdle pain is very common, affecting roughly 1 in 5 pregnant people, and it is caused by normal pregnancy changes like ligament softening and a shifting center of gravity. Common does not mean you have to live with it. The pain usually responds well to gentle, pregnancy-specific care.
What is the difference between SPD and pelvic girdle pain?
Pelvic girdle pain is the broad term for discomfort in any of the pelvic joints during pregnancy. Symphysis pubis dysfunction, or SPD, refers specifically to pain at the pubic bone joint at the front of the pelvis. SPD is one type of pelvic girdle pain, not a separate condition.
Is chiropractic care safe for pelvic pain during pregnancy?
Pregnancy-specific chiropractic care, including the Webster Technique, is considered gentle and safe throughout pregnancy and is often recommended by midwives and birth professionals. At Tula, both doctors are Webster certified and adjust techniques to your trimester and comfort. Always share your full health history so your care can be tailored to you.
When in pregnancy does pelvic girdle pain usually start?
It can begin in the first trimester but most often appears in the second and third trimesters as your baby grows and the load on your pelvis increases. Pain that starts earlier is not a bad sign, it simply means the joints are adapting sooner. Care can begin at any point.
What can I do at home to ease pelvic girdle pain?
Keep your knees together when turning in bed or getting out of the car, sit down to dress instead of balancing on one leg, and sleep with a pillow between your knees to keep the pelvis level. Avoid wide squats and movements that leave the pubic bone sore the next day. Gentle, symmetrical movement usually feels better than total rest.
Will pelvic girdle pain go away after birth?
For many people it eases significantly in the weeks after birth as hormones settle and the pelvis stabilizes. For a smaller group, around 5% to 8.5%, it can persist for up to two years postpartum. Postpartum care can support recovery, which is why pelvic health matters well beyond the due date.
