Pregnancy Week 17: Joint Pain, Backaches, and the Baby is Growing Rapidly

Your baby has learned survival skills and is now in the process of honing them. Pregnancy week seventeen is a week where your baby will practice moving, grasping, swallowing, and sucking. Mom may have aching feet, ankles, knees, back, and hips starting in her seventeenth week of pregnancy. Your joints and back can thank another pregnancy hormone, called relaxin, for the pain.

Pregnancy Week 17: Baby's Development

Your baby is growing about a ½ an inch per week. By your seventeenth week of pregnancy he is now five inches long and weighs five ounces.

Your baby's eyelids are still fused but his eyes are moving under the transparent lids. Your baby can also straighten out a little more thanks to his stronger back muscles. You may even feel him trying to stretch.

Pregnancy Week 17: Joint Pain, Backaches, and Another Hormone Called Relaxin

Your relaxin production is in full swing by your seventeenth week of pregnancy. This hormone relaxes your pelvis and joints in order to allow your pelvis to expand for childbirth. Relaxin is a wonderful hormone for childbirth but it causes joint pain and backaches when you're pregnant.

You may notice that every joint below your back is starting to hurt. The weight bearing joints of your ankles and knees will also stiffen up if you have been sitting for any length of time. When you are sitting try to get up and move for at least five minutes every hour. This will help keep your knees and ankles from becoming stiff.

The relaxin hormone in conjunction with the extra weight you've gained so far in your pregnancy will also cause backaches and hip pain. This pain can be especially difficult to deal with at night. In order to get comfortable, position pillows between your knees and behind your back at night. This will help take the extra pressure off these areas and help ease your backaches.

Pool exercise will help your joints, back, and muscles. The water will help take the strain off your aching joints making it easier to move throughout the day. Swimming is wonderful exercise for a pregnant mom, even if you just walk around the pool for half an hour.

Believe it or not, these next few weeks may be the most comfortable for you than at any other time during your pregnancy, despite the backaches and joint pain.

For more pregnancy weeks and fetal development you can read:
Pregnancy Week 13

Pregnancy Week 14

Pregnancy Week 15

Pregnancy Week 16

Click here to find more information on your pregnancy and baby's development.

Sources:

Personal Experience

Fit Pregnancy (2009). Pregnancy Calendar. Retrieved: April 8, 9, 2009. Web Site: fitpregnancy.com/calendar/40251887.html

Myers-Gorrie, Trula, Slone-McKinney, Emily, & Smith-Murray, Sharon (1998). Foundations of Maternal-Newborn Nursing (2^nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders Company.

What to Expect (2009). Weekly Pregnancy Calendar. Retrieved:April 8, 9, 2009. Web Site: whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/landing.aspx