While the ligament stretching is a normal response, too much stretching of ligaments can be detrimental. вЂњIf you allow your joints to stretch without paying attention to your body during pregnancy, those changes can be permanent. вЂњLigaments can take up to 300 days to remodel or rebuild,вЂќ says Alaniz. Joint laxity can be more than just annoying, especially if ignored. Relaxin doesnвЂ™t just disappear once Baby arrives and breastfeeding creates more of the hormone so it may take a while for joints to return to вЂњnormalвЂќ after a pregnancy. вЂњIf guys could imagine strapping a bowling ball to their belly button, they might feel how being pregnant moves your center of mass forward and how much additional stress or load that being pregnant adds to the body,вЂќ says Alaniz. Relaxin enables a woman to carry the additional weight of a baby by relaxing her joints, especially in the hips, pelvis and lumbar spine. Pregnancy wreaks some serious havoc on a womanвЂ™s center of gravity. This is why many joints feel looser both during and after pregnancy.вЂќ Read about tips for strong bones and joints > Bowling balls and belly buttons It takes effect on all ligaments in the body. This is all fine and is part of the miracle of life, but Relaxin is non-specific in its targeting of joints to loosen up.

Ligaments need to stretch in order to let the pelvis widen. вЂњIn order to squeeze the watermelon-sized baby through the pelvis, the pelvis needs to widen. вЂњThe reason this hormone is present in higher amounts during pregnancy makes sense,вЂќ he says. Steve Alaniz, CEO of Momentum Physical Therapy & Sports Rehab in San Antonio, Texas explains that the hormone Relaxin cold be a hero and a culprit when it comes to pregnancy. Like Slater, plenty of women experience looser than normal joints during and after pregnancy - and for good reason. Twenty-one years later, she still remembers the recovery as worse than childbirth and wonders if her pregnancies contributed to her joint problems. As a single parent of an infant, Slater wasnвЂ™t ready to go down that road and the problem seemed to subsideвЂ¦ until her second baby arrived seven years later and her loose joints returned.ДЄt the time, she recognized the suspicious timing, but couldnвЂ™t make a definitive correlation so she proceeded with the surgery. Traumatized by that experience, she sought the advice of an orthopedic surgeon who told her she needed knee replacement surgery. When it happened a third time, she and her newborn son fell to the ground. Soon after Jennifer Slater delivered her first child, her knee slipped out of joint twice in a matter of days. This hormone can be a godsend but it can also lead to joint laxity and maybe even permanent damage if postpartum joint health is ignored. As the body prepares to push a large baby through a not-so-large space, a specific hormone works to loosen up joints.

How to pop your back while pregnant