Back pain is something I've suffered with since before my pregnancy with Lily. I first started noticing it at the end of long uni days after carrying around bags full of books or whilst attempting to walk back to my student digs with my mountains of bags full of food shopping.
Not long after I first started noticing the back pain I actually found out I was pregnant with Lily and from there on it just worsened until it got to the point where I was heavily pregnant and could barely move by the end of the day because of the pain in my back. Back pain affects pregnant woman in particular and a study from Deep Freeze has shown that out of 36% of pregnant woman who choose not to exercise in pregnancy, 20% choose not to specifically due to their back pain. This doesn't surprise me at all actually.
For me, the back pain never went away even after giving birth and the pain would be exacerbated by picking up Lily for long periods of time which I always found incredibly frustrating and less than ideal when you have a baby's needs to attend to.
I've been keeping the pain under control for a while by a concoction of weekly acupuncture, weekly massage and oral painkillers but since my second pregnancy I've had to stop for various reasons. The oral painkillers I use are no longer safe to take and as we've been desperately trying to save money for our second child the weekly massage and acupuncture sessions have become a monthly occurrence instead. I'm finding myself avoiding going on longer walks with Lily because being hunched over the pram sets off the pain and the exercise DVDs I was hoping to continue with throughout pregnancy are a total no go at the moment too. I've been worrying about how much worse it might get the further into my pregnancy I get as it definitely got worse the heavier I got with Lily, and me and James have even been discussing whether we can afford for me to start up weekly acupuncture again towards the later stages of my pregnancy however I'm not sure that we can.
When Deep Freeze recently gave me the opportunity to review their Pain Relief Cold Patch you can imagine that I jumped at the chance, hoping that this could give me the lifeline I need during pregnancy to continue with as many of my daily routines as I can.
My first impression of the patch it that it gives me instant relief, much like the cooling patches I use on my head for my migraines. I saw an immediate difference in the pain level, or at least in the way in which my body was tolerating the pain as the cooling sensation helps me to focus on a sensation other than the pain going on in my back. The long lasting cold analgesia in the patch has been found to reduce the pain signals that are going back and forth between the body and brain by lowering tissue temperature and creating a numbing effect and I found that once the patch was on I was much more able to get around and be active rather than having to lie still in the same position for hours on end.
I have heard that heat patches can also dull pain in a similar way but I much prefer the cooling sensation of patches like these, which is why I use so many cooling products for my migraines too. I would even say that I find these patches to be much more effective than my current Braun back massager, and way cheaper too which is always a bonus! You also receive several in a pack which is ideal for me as my pain radiates from the tops of my shoulders to the very small of my back meaning I need more than one to tackle all sites of the pain. These patches are great news for muscular back pain during pregnancy and couldn't have been discovered at a better time for me!
For more information on Deep Freeze Cold Patches and back pain during pregnancy click here. Don't forget to check out the Deep Freeze Facebook page too.
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'Even more effective than a back massager', well that has to be a win win doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI'm really pleased they are giving you relief and I like the cooling sensation for migraine too.