Why Some Pregnant Moms in Petaluma Get Hip and Pelvic Pain

There is a moment in the second trimester when a lot of Petaluma moms feel their body change in a brand new way. The morning sickness has eased, the bump is finally showing, and then a deep ache settles in. Sometimes it is low and central, right over the tailbone and the back of the pelvis. Sometimes it is off to one side, a sharp catch in the hip or the buttock that flares when you roll over in bed, climb the stairs, or stand up after sitting through a movie. Sometimes it is right in front, a grinding tenderness over the pubic bone that makes getting out of the car feel like a project.

If that is you, the first thing to know is that this is common, and it is not something you simply have to white-knuckle for five more months.

Pelvic and low back pain in pregnancy is one of the most under-discussed parts of growing a baby. The research puts it plainly: roughly half of all pregnant women develop low back or pelvic girdle pain at some point, and in late pregnancy the number climbs higher. It is not a sign that anything is wrong with you or your baby. It is a sign that your pelvis is doing exactly what pregnancy asks of it, and the structures around it are working hard to keep up.

At Titan, we look at that pain through one lens: the pelvis, the joints that hold it together, and the nervous system that runs the whole show.

What is actually happening in your pelvis

Your pelvis is not one solid bone. It is three big pieces, the sacrum in the back and the two hip bones, joined by three joints: the two sacroiliac joints behind you and the pubic symphysis in front. For most of your life those joints barely move. They are built for stability, not motion.

Pregnancy changes the assignment. Early on, your body releases a hormone called relaxin that loosens the ligaments holding those pelvic joints together. The point is good and necessary: a pelvis that can give a little is a pelvis that can let a baby through. But a looser pelvis is also a less stable pelvis. Add the weight of a growing baby, a shifting center of gravity that tips you forward, and a low back that curves more to compensate, and those normally quiet sacroiliac joints and that pubic joint suddenly have to work overtime to hold you steady. When one of them starts moving in a way it was never designed to, it sends up a pain signal.

Here is the part we focus on. Those pelvic joints are dense with nerve endings, and they report directly to the nervous system. Picture the freeway we talk about in the office: the brain and spinal cord are the 101, and the nerves are the on-ramps and off-ramps feeding information up and down. When a sacroiliac joint is moving poorly and firing off stress signals, it is like a wreck on a major on-ramp. Traffic backs up. The muscles around the pelvis clamp down to protect the area, which only makes them ache more, and the whole region gets stuck in a tense, guarded, alarm state.

Your body is designed to work at 100 percent. The pain is a signal, not a defect. The question we ask is which joint is stuck, and can we help it move and settle the way it is supposed to.

Why one side, why the front, why 3 AM

Moms always describe the same patterns. The one-sided version usually means one sacroiliac joint is taking more of the load than the other. The front-and-center grinding usually means the pubic symphysis is under strain. And the reason it so often screams at night is simple: after a full day of carrying that load, the supporting muscles are fatigued, the joints are at their loosest, and rolling over in bed asks the unstable pelvis to do the one thing it is least able to do, which is move smoothly through a twist.

Where Webster comes in

This is the work Dr. Reilly is specifically certified for. The Webster technique is a gentle, specific method of analyzing and adjusting the pelvis of a pregnant mom to restore balance to the sacrum, the pelvic joints, and the ligaments that attach to them. The goal is a pelvis that sits level and moves evenly, so no single joint is forced to absorb more than its share.

One important clarification, because it comes up a lot. Webster works on the alignment and balance of the pelvic bones, the sacrum and the hip bones and the ligaments that connect them. That is a different thing from pelvic floor muscle work. We are tuning how the bony pelvis sits and moves, not the soft tissue inside it.

The adjustment itself is gentle and specific. There is no aggressive twisting of a pregnant belly, no forcing. We use carefully directed, low-force input to help a stuck joint find its motion again and to take tension off the ligaments that have been pulling unevenly.

We do not guess

Here is what sets the work apart. We do not press on your back, decide what feels off, and start adjusting. We scan first. Our INSIGHT scanning technology reads your nervous system directly: an infrared scan that maps stress along your spine, a surface scan that measures how hard your muscles are working, and a heart rate variability reading that shows whether your nervous system is stuck in a revved-up, guarded state or able to rest. Those three combine into a single score we can track over time.

That means we can see your stress pattern before we touch you, deliver a specific adjustment, and then re-scan to confirm something actually changed. We test, adjust, and retest. You are not taking our word for it, and neither are we.

The Clinical Layer

For the curious and the science-minded.

The prevalence, with numbers. Pregnancy-related low back and pelvic girdle pain is genuinely common. A frequently cited figure is that about half of pregnant women experience low back or pelvic pain during pregnancy. Prospective cohorts put pelvic girdle pain specifically at roughly one in three to one in two women, rising through the third trimester. The large Maastricht prospective cohort followed 7,526 pregnant women through pregnancy and the year after delivery, and a multinational study in the Journal of Women’s Health (2017) reported combined low back and pelvic pain in 70 to 86 percent of pregnancies, lowest in Scandinavia. This is a mainstream obstetric problem, not a fringe complaint.

The relaxin myth, corrected. The popular story is that relaxin loosens everything and that causes the pain. The honest version is more interesting. Multiple higher-quality studies have found no correlation between a woman’s circulating relaxin level and whether she has pelvic pain. For example, researchers have found circulating relaxin levels to be normal in pregnant women with pelvic pain. So relaxin is not a simple pain switch. What it does is increase ligament laxity, and that laxity, combined with added load, a shifted center of gravity, and an increased lumbar curve, can let pre-existing mechanical asymmetries in the sacroiliac joints and pubic symphysis become symptomatic. The target is the mechanics and the load, not the hormone.

The chiropractic evidence, graded honestly. The strongest positive trial is George and colleagues (2013), in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a randomized controlled trial of 169 women with low back and pelvic pain in mid pregnancy. A multimodal arm (chiropractic manual therapy plus stabilization exercises and education) produced significant reductions in pain and disability, while the standard obstetric care arm showed no significant improvement, with no adverse events reported. The counterweight is Gausel and colleagues (2017), in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, a smaller trial of 56 women with dominating one-sided pelvic girdle pain, which found no statistically significant difference between chiropractic care and standard treatment. A 2020 systematic review in JMPT concluded the overall body of evidence is low to moderate quality and that care appears safe, and a Cochrane review found no high-quality evidence that spinal manipulation alone resolves pelvic girdle pain.

On Webster specifically. The Webster technique is a defined sacral and pelvic adjustment protocol developed through the ICPA. The most cited reference is Pistolese (2002), in JMPT, a survey-based report in which doctors using Webster reported resolution of breech presentation in about 82 percent of cases. Read that number carefully: it is survey data with a low response rate and clear recall bias, not a controlled trial, and the ICPA itself does not position Webster as a treatment for fetal malposition. The defensible framing is that Webster aims to reduce pelvic and ligamentous tension and restore pelvic balance, which is biologically reasonable and has a strong safety record, while the breech-resolution numbers should be treated as preliminary.

The defensible claim. Pregnancy pelvic pain is a real, common, biomechanical problem driven by ligament laxity plus changing load on the sacroiliac joints and pubic symphysis. Gentle manual care aimed at pelvic balance has a good safety profile and at least one solid positive trial alongside a null one. We can honestly say it may support a more balanced, comfortable pelvis. We cannot say it treats or cures anything, and we do not.

Red flags that are medical, not mechanical. Severe pain that stops you from walking or bearing weight, pain with fever, vaginal bleeding, fluid leakage, regular tightening before 37 weeks, or any sudden change that frightens you. Those need your OB or midwife, and right away.

What helps at home

A few simple habits genuinely take load off an overworked pelvis. Keep your knees together when you roll over in bed or get out of the car, so you are not asking an unstable joint to twist. A pillow between the knees at night levels the pelvis while you sleep. Short, frequent walks keep the joints moving and the supporting muscles awake without overloading them, and Sonoma County is built for an easy stroll. Stay hydrated. And protect your sleep, since a rested body holds itself together far better than an exhausted one. Sleep, water, and gentle daily movement are the same three foundations we give every Titan family, and they matter even more when you are carrying for two.

The bottom line

Pelvic and hip pain in pregnancy is common, it is mechanical, and it is not something you simply have to endure. Your pelvis is loosening and reloading to make room for your baby, and sometimes the joints need help staying balanced through that. That is exactly the mom we are built for. We will scan, show you precisely what we see, use the gentle and specific Webster approach, and re-scan to confirm it shifted. The goal is a calmer, more balanced pelvis and a more comfortable pregnancy, all the way to the finish.

You are not failing, and nothing is wrong with you. Sometimes a hardworking pelvis just needs a little help finding its balance.

Strong. Clear. Unshakable. That is what we want for you and your baby.

Wondering if your pelvic pain is a pattern we can help with? Reach out to the Titan team and we will walk you through it.

Titan Chiropractic, 1476 Professional Dr, Petaluma, CA 94954. Neurologically focused prenatal, pediatric, and family chiropractic for Petaluma, Penngrove, Cotati, and Sonoma County. We do not guess. We test, adjust, and retest.