Painful feet in pregnancy

As the pregnancy advances, it becomes more strenuous for a woman to carry all that weight with her all the time. Some of the main problems of later stages of pregnancy are related to painful feet. Pregnancy can affect feet and thereby cause them pain in many different ways.

Flat feet during pregnancy

One of the regular side effects of pregnancy are flat feet. The reason for the appearance of flat feet lies in frequent hormone changes during pregnancy. Some of the many raging hormones have the role of loosening up the tension in the ligaments and preparing the body for birth. While doing this, they may also affect those ligaments in the feet, causing them to relax so much that they lead to the flattening of the foot arch.

However, there are ways to prevent this from happening, by making sure to provide the feet with all the rest they require in those stages. That means avoiding walking and standing for long periods of time, especially with no shoes on. When mentioning shoes, the kind that the woman wears is also a very important issue, as they need to be as comfortable as possible and support the foot well.

Swelling of the feet during pregnancy

Swelling is a result of an enhanced amount of fluids in the body tissues, and this condition is so likely to affect the feet during pregnancy, that is almost unavoidable. The reason this happens is that the body produces extra oxygen as well as nutritious elements for the growing human being inside the womb, and all this boosts the volume of the blood, thereby leading to swelling. Another potential cause of swelling in the feet during pregnancy is of hormonal nature, because the hormones can be so out of control in pregnancy that they can even affect the blood vessels.

Making sure to keep moving while on the feet, as opposed to standing still, is always a good idea, as well as leaving enough time to rest every day and hydrating the body with large quantities of water.

Leg cramps during pregnancy

Although leg cramps are quite characteristic for pregnant women, the causes of this are a bit vague. It is believed that they are associated to variable calcium concentration, the exhaustion in the muscles and any other kind of pressure which is a result of all the additional weight. Leg cramps occur in the form of spasms in the calves and they are most likely to arise at night.

Doing anything to relieve these muscles will help relieve this kind of pain, from massages, to light stretching exercises, to warm baths.