Tailbone Discomfort After Natural Delivery

When you say "natural" do you mean "without pain medecation" or "vaginal"? Women who have epidurals will sometime have musculoskeletal aches and pains after delivery due to moving into odd positions during labor and delivery and not being able to feel the need to move.

It is possible to break your tailbone during delivery which causes some pain that does improve over time. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done for it in the meantime.

Give your doctor or midwife a call and run the symptoms by them, they can give you a better idea of what to do next. Also, 800 mg of Motrin/Ibuprofen every 8 hours can do wonders for these kind of aches and pains.

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When you say "natural" do you mean "without pain medecation" or "vaginal"? Women who have epidurals will sometime have musculoskeletal aches and pains after delivery due to moving into odd positions during labor and delivery and not being able to feel the need to move.

It is possible to break your tailbone during delivery which causes some pain that does improve over time. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done for it in the meantime.

Give your doctor or midwife a call and run the symptoms by them, they can give you a better idea of what to do next. Also, 800 mg of Motrin/Ibuprofen every 8 hours can do wonders for these kind of aches and pains.

1 mom found this helpful

I think you need to see your doctor asap to get a referral. Not sure who the specialist would be.
Good luck to you!
M.

I had a long labor (48 hrs from water breaking to delivery) with my daughter. She was in the occiput posterior position and it took a while for her/me to turn her so that she could make her way out. When she had turned, she came FAST. I pushed three or four times and had a baby in my arms.

Anyway, in the process of coming out of my pelvis and vaginal canal, my tail bone was either sprained or broken. Ouch. Sitting was so, so painful - so breastfeeding was painful, eating was painful, taking a bath was painful getting out of bed hurt...most everything was very, very painful and it lasted around six months (before I felt completely healed).

My understanding (what I was told by my midwife) is that tail bone injuries are a lot like toe injuries: time is the only true cure.

That said, I found heat therapy to be a comfort and I used pillows and a donut to hold my body in less painful positions. I also used Arnica gel externally (which is very safe). I am not sure that it would be safe w/ breastfeeding, but recently, after breaking my leg, I took Bone Up, a Calcium supplement. I was able to heal from a complete (but clean) break in my Tibia in four and a half weeks.

Good luck and congratulations on your baby!

It's possible that you dislocated your coccyx during the birth. It's designed to "swing" out of the way when your baby is being born, but when you're forced to be on a surface (vs. squatting, etc...) it's very difficult for it to move out of the way & can lead to a sprain, strain or even "broken" tailbone. Unfortunately, this can take a while to get better.

Arnica Montana may help & seeing a good chiropractor on a regular basis will also do a world of good.

I had this happen to me w/ the birth of my first & was in pain for a very long time, so I understand what you're going through. I hope you feel better soon!

Just wanted to say that I had tailbone pain after both of my deliveries. I was concerned, like you, because I didn't really hear anyone complaining about that, and it seemed like the worst part of the recovery for me. My labors were both really really quick, so I always assumed it was because of how fast the baby was pushed out, but if you spent a long time inclined, I guess that's not it. Anyway, it went completely away both times. I can't remember exactly how long it took, but I'd say in one or two months after delivery it was gone. It just gradually got better. The less you spend on your feet, probably the better. I found it the most comfortable to sleep on my side.
M.

Definitely have it checked out. A friend of mine broke her tailbone during delivery and needed surgery. She was in so much pain. Good luck to you and congratulations on your baby girl!

I had the same thing happen when my son was born three years ago and suffered with tailbone pain pretty much since then (but I think I broke mine). Anyway, doctors were WORTHLESS. I was told that if I was still in pain in a YEAR to come back! I finally went to a chiropractor and the difference was night and day--it helped me get my life back. I was in constant, intense pain. So that would be my advice. By the way, I continued going even though I feel mostly better and didn't break my tailbone when my new baby was born (but I also refused to lay on my back to deliver!).

My cousin snapped her tailbone in labor! You might want an xray just to check. Good luck.

I had the same thing, because of what you said. Hours of spent on inclined position. My discomfort lasted not much longer than that about 3 weeks or so, I just took it as easy as possible, and rested when I could, and it went away. Just try sitting on the cushiest chairs you can, and take whatever pain stuff they prescribed works too.

Take it easy your body is still trying to recover, it will get better soon :)
Congrats on your new baby!

I am 40 today and my moms told me all my life that I "broke" her tailbone when she delivered me. Lol. But actually I recently read that you can't break a tailbone. But I understand that it really hurts and for the rest of your life you might have flare-ups. Ah, children... What we go through sometimes, huh? Good luck and I truly hope you find relief soon.

I second Abbie P's response.

Your tailbone does move to make room for baby to exit. If you have a prolonged pushing phase or baby is posterior, then the tailbone can stay in the "out" position for an extended time after birth. In most cases, it will return to it's usual spot on it's own.

I would mention it to your doc, for sure, to rule out anything else, such as a break. I would hold off on seeing a chiropractor till you are at least 6 weeks post-partum. Your body has a lot of reassembly to do after birth, in most cases, issues like this do self resolve.

More info http://www.babycenter.com/0_bruised-or-broken-tailbone_##...

Ice the area for 20 minutes 3x/day. If it doesn't heal in 10 days, see a chiropractor.