Abstract

Introduction: back pain is a problem that affects a large number of women following a normal pregnancy, causing high work absenteeism. In pregnancy, a distinction must be made between lumbar pain, pelvic pain or both. Objective: to determine the prevalence of pelvic pain versus lumbar and lumbopelvic pain in a population of pregnant women in the province of Cádiz, and quantify if, in a range of variables, there are any differences between women with pain and without pain and, in presence of pain, if there are such differences according the location of this pain. Material and method: a cross-sectional, descriptive and observational study, conducted with pregnant women, assisted in Centro de Salud Pinillo Chico of Puerto de Santa María. A sample of 31 pregnant women aged between 19 and 40 was obtained. Those who reported suffering pain were subjected to provocation and functional tests. Subsequently the pain was classified according to the criteria of pelvic pain, lumbar or lumbopelvic. The variables considered were age, height, weight, to have children or not, suffering pain or not, location of pain (pelvic, lumbar or lumbopelvic) and gestational week. Results: 83.9 % of pregnant women suffered from pain, of which 38.7 % pelvic, 32.3 % lumbopelvic and 12.9 % lumbar. Women with pain had a significantly higher weight than women without pain. A significant relationship between age and each type of pain was obtained. Conclusions: pelvic pain is more prevalent in the sample studied pregnant versus lumbar pain and lumbopelvic.