barefoot and pregnant and in need of shoes. :(

ladycheshire5

Barefooters
Aug 16, 2011
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Any barefooters out there that have been through pregnancy? I am in my 7th month of pregnancy and I'm advised to wear shoes in my last months of pregnancy. Any suggestions?
 
I guess no one has had this dilemma. :( I bought a pair of dansko clogs, I've seen are very popular with medical people on their feet all day. After a day in them my feet are killing me. My fascia feels like it is pulling too much in these shoes. They are going back tomorrow. Maybe I'll try something else. Don't know what.
 
i'm thinking of wearing a costume as a pregnant bf woman for races. no idea on what shoes you should wear though. if you're comfortable w/out them then why bother?
 
Who has recommended you wear shoes? I'm not saying you shouldn't, but if you go barefoot to the extent that you are having to buy shoes in order to wear them, you are probably not an 'average patient' for most doctors.

Also, for what? If it is for running, I can't comment on that since I would probably not have dreamt of running with that big a bump. I rather gave up on the 'pregnancy makes no difference to a woman's life' bit after suffering a miscarriage early in my first pregnancy after shifting a washing machine. Maybe coincidence, but after that I was wary. You're well past that stage of course.

It is a lot of years since I was pregnant, both kids now being at Uni, and I wore shoes, but would have gone barefoot about the house, which was a lot of the time as I wasn't working outside the home. I had severe softening of the ligaments in my pelvis, to the extent that I could feel the bones grating together when I turned over in my sleep, but I don't recall any specific problems with my feet - possibly because I already had flat feet, I suppose. Maybe they ended up a bit wider?? But they wouldn't have had anything like your musculature to support them.

If its because you have a problem, OK, but in that case i would have thought some specific type of shoe would have been recommended. But if it's just an 'in case' I'd worry about changing just on grounds of possibly dubious principle.

Ok , editing this to say that having looked up your older posts, you have had a reply from one of the doctors here. So feel free to ignore this!
 
I asked a few questions related to Dr. ES's response to Laura's other post
http://www.thebarefootrunners.org/threads/barefoot-and-pregnant.14678/
but haven't seen anyone comment yet.
Now I'm even more interested in the science behind this principle, since just yesterday I was advising a new neighbor on the benefits of barefoot activity when I for the first time ever began to have reservations because she is pregnant. Since a pro-barefoot DPM was giving the supportive shoe for pregnant runners advice I wanted to give it some credibility, but the young mom to be really wanted to believe in the possibility that my theory of a second chance at developing foot normalcy was valid. Since there is only this small window of time, she'd also like to know.......harmful? helpful? or just neutral regarding barefoot activity while under the influence of relaxin?
 
Ok , editing this to say that having looked up your older posts, you have had a reply from one of the doctors here. So feel free to ignore this!

The reply from the doc was in the "ask the docs" forum. In THIS forum we give just as much credibility to those w/o a license and degree so NOBODY will ignore your post based on personal experiences etc.
 
Well, I guess the question you have to ask is "what would the ancestors have done".
I suspect they wouldn't have suddenly started looking around for something to put on their feet once pregnant. It's probably a modern prejudice.

Neil

The real question is whether or not they did harm to their feet. My guess is it was neutral for those properly developed feet.
 
And now my pro-barefoot bias has me wondering........is relaxin's effect extended beyond the pelvis for a reason? Is the loosening of the foot structures for a purpose as well? Does it allow for a designed re-positioning of the bones in order to better handle the extra weight and stay that way to allow better balance and weight bearing needed as a mom instead of a girl with lesser physical responsibilities?
 
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I would think in evolutionary terms, a dose of relaxin which maximised the chance of an easy safe delivery for mother and child would trump a large number of potential downsides, so that may not be a safe place to argue from. More important to survive and reproduce than to end up with perky boobs and perfectly bouncy feet. But on the other side of the argument the potential changes can't be that awful otherwise it would be more reflected in custom, tradition and experience.
 
Many women are told to wear shoes while pregnant so that their feet won't get wider and bigger, but so many people say the same thing for non pregnant women. In the case of the not pregnant ones we realize that the widening etc. is a good thing, and that fashion should not be used as an excuse for binding.
So I'm still wondering if the foot changes during pregnancy are good, bad, or neither. Normally I would just ask a doc, but most would say widening from being barefoot for non pregnant females is a bad thing, unless they are one of the rare pro-barefoot activity docs. That's why I'm hoping Dr ES and others on this forum will elaborate.
 
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my theory of a second chance at developing foot normalcy
For the habitually shod, would nine months be enough time to allow for an adequate transition, given the increased load on the feet from pregnancy? Or would it be too much too soon? Would the sudden change be too taxing on already weak bones and muscles? My feet are still changing and it's been 2.5 years, now. My personal theory is that it's never too late to encourage the foot to return to normal, as long as the joints have not degenerated. However, any problems from decades of being shod will take years to reverse.

Looks like more research needs to be done.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130301122306.htm
 
Wow, so they are studying the phenomenon and realize that all evidence up til now has been anecdotal. Pretty interesting.
Oh, and Sid, women don't have the relaxin hormone boost for nine months, nor the increased weight bearing either. Pretty much three months for each, so it's probably a pretty quick change.
 
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Hi everyone, I have been thinking about this post since it started and my heart was crushing weather I should share my experience with you about pregnancy, relaxin, feet and injury. So I want to first say that my experience is rather rare as my docs have told me. Some said it was a coincidence. Laura this decision about wearing shoes should be yours, I would just like to share my experience.

When I was pregnant I wore shoes... Those clogs... the most supportive of any shoes possible and I really do think now that they are the foot coffins that some of us talk about when we express our disdain for shoes. In such a shoe your foot does no work, there is no support, you may try to have movement in there but the shoe only forces one type of action, the roll.

Relaxin had its affects on me in month 7 when I could feel my body relaxing and joints spreading. My body became so relaxed that when I bent over without stabilizing my core by snapping my belly, I ruptured a disk and broke a vertebrae. The doctors were not able to do anything to correct the brokenness until my little guy was ready to come out. This experience was more painful then actual childbirth.

I think if I had understood he benefits of barefooting at that time I would have had a stronger core, I would have been conscious of my posture and all of that extra weight up front. You see, our body while pregnant is a lot like a bridge that needs to have support. That support I believe now should come from strength in the core, and when you think about our body, if you think from the ground up, that strength begins in our feet. However I was not shared with by any doctor about how important core strength is to pregnancy. Some docs will say that support will come from your feet by supporting with orthotics and supportive shoes.

So I believe now that understanding the center of ones body weather pregnant or not is crucial to preventing injury. Being pregnant adjusts that center. This happens gradually and as long as you are aware of the center shift and do not try to do things that could cause injury, such as bending at the waist without squatting, like I did, you will be stepping out on the right foot. It is up to you how supported that foot should be.
 
It makes perfect sense to me that the pregnant person with an increasing gross weight and a shifting center of gravity would have better control of their movement in bare feet. There's a reason why gymnasts ditched the gymnastic shoes decades ago. But the question remains whether or not the feet are being damaged by the increased load bearing while under relaxin's influence or not. It's great to see that it is finally being addressed .
I'm sure most doctors would say that the chance of injuring a foot by being barefoot far outweighs any benefits of better balance and movement, but that's the typical advice given by people with no real barefoot experience. In Susan's case a fractured vertebrae resulted very possibly by the decision to wear supportive shoes to protect the actual feet.
 
Wow, so they are studying the phenomenon and realize that all evidence up til now has been anecdotal. Pretty interesting.
I, too, tried Dankos when I had to work on my feet in the distant past. Being habitually shod, the support was actually helpful. When spending the day on my feet now, I wear minshoes (2-4mm zero drop), and I don't have problems. Nowadays, Dankos feel terribly awkward and uncomfortable to me.

I have a sneaking suspicion that all Western podiatric medicine is based on the habitually shod, including supportive shoes, orthotics, and corrective procedures. I wonder what happens when one applies Western medicine to the habitually unshod.

On a separate note, the habitually shod seem to want quick fixes for foot problems. Hence, supportive shoes and orthotics, rather than strengthening and conditioning. This may be reflective of the pill-popping society, today. Yet for some reason, people are patient enough to wear orthodontics for years!
 
Relaxin and feet, if it does go all the way down there, may be able allow you to spread your feet out to support the whole of the body. Souly shod people's feet are all mushed together. Relaxin may help spread the foot to a more natural position.

Making this decision Laura may mean looking at how strong your core is now. Are you conscious of your center, how long you have been barefooting, etc. women all over the world do this.
 
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Thank you all for your responses.

I took back the dansko shoes and exchanged them for Topos, 18mm zero drop.I asked for the most material minimal shoe they had to offer and this is what REI had. I'm keeping them. They do have a little bit of an arch that I do not like but it's better than the dansko "foot coffins". I was wearing Merrill pace gloves (I'm not editing to correct spelling mistakes bc my phone is an @$$ hole) those shoes are pretty thin and I've been in them for work for about 2 years now. I've been barefoot running for 2 years as well.

My core could probably be stronger, life has been pretty crazy during my pregnancy with lots of life changes like moving and getting married. So exercise has taken a bit of a backseat as of late. :( but I have always had pretty decent balance. I do not bend over at the waist with two feet on the ground. I usually hold on to a counter and pivot from the hip on one leg so one leg extends out behind me like a counter balance. If I cannot hold on I do squat. I am ignoring some of what the good dr. In the other thread is advising, I'm continuing my BAREFOOT walks. I can't bring myself to show my feet it just feels so UN natural. Not to mention unhelpful. My plan is to pay attention to what's going on (I always do though) and heed any signs of pain or distress with rest or reduction in activity.
That's my plan. Anyone have experience with those Topo shoes? They sounded new to REI.
 
I'd be curious about the scientific response to the relaxin question. My thought was your body may not have the ability to control what parts of the body that hormone affects. It is just systemically released.? Because it's not just your feet and pelvis, it's body wide as evidenced by the back injury. :( that sounds horrible. Can't imagine dealing with that while pregnant then birthing!