Does yoga for pregnancy low back pain and/ or pelvic pain result in improved outcomes? A systematic review of Randomised Controlled Trials

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractpeer-review

Abstract

Background: Pregnancy low back and / or pelvic pain (LBPP) are common with significant physical and emotional consequences. Despite this, treatments remain limited and pregnant women reluctantly turn to pain medications. Therefore, there is a need to review non-pharmacological treatments for this pain such as yoga, which has shown to be effective for general low back pain.

The aim: was to systematically review the evidence on yoga for pregnancy LBPP

Methods: CINAHL (1937-2020) and Medline (1946-2020) were searched for relevant RCTs investigating yoga for pregnancy LBPP. The following terms were used to search the databases back pain and pelvic pain terms: low back pain, back pain, back ache, pelvic pain and lumbopelvic pain. Pregnancy terms: Antenatal, pregnant women, pregnancy and expectant mothers. Yoga terms: yoga, yoga therapy and yoga exercise. CASP was used to appraise the included studies. Ethical approval was not sought to conduct this systematic review as all included studies had received ethical approval. Inclusion criteria included:

Participants- Pregnant women of any gestation. Women did not have to have LBPP at recruitment

Intervention- Any form of yoga

Comparator- Usual care, exercises, Complementary therapy, education

Outcomes: Pain, back specific function, work disability, patient satisfaction general health status.

Study Design: Randomised controlled trial's (RCT’s) including those where the primary focus was not LBPP

Findings: 54 articles were retrieved in searches and after reviewing the studies alongside the inclusion criteria, three studies were included. Two reported improvements in LBPP and one reported no change. There were significant issues with blinding and a high likelihood of selection and detection bias.

Conclusion and implications: Yoga appears promising for pregnancy LBPP, but the quality of evidence is poor and more research is required. Maternity health professionals may wish to give advice on the use of yoga for pregnancy LBPP on an individual basis.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 10 Mar 2021
EventTrinity Health and Education International Research Conference 2021
: 'Transforming healthcare in a changing world: new ways of thinking and working'
- Online (during Covid-19 pandemic), Dublin, Ireland
Duration: 09 Mar 202111 Mar 2021

Conference

ConferenceTrinity Health and Education International Research Conference 2021
Country/TerritoryIreland
CityDublin
Period09/03/202111/03/2021

Keywords

  • Low back pain; Pelvic pain; Pregnancy; Randomised controlled trial; Reflexology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Does yoga for pregnancy low back pain and/ or pelvic pain result in improved outcomes? A systematic review of Randomised Controlled Trials'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this