barefoot and pregnant

[ladycheshire5]

I run barefoot. But I haven't run too much during my pregnancy,I was on pelvic rest first trimester and life has been pretty busy. But I continue to walk and do jog intervals as I can sometimes I get weird abdominal pains I guess is just the stretching of my muscles and tissues.then I walk. I have continued to wear minimal shoes at work, I work as a mammography tech. My legs, ankles and feet are swelling.I am 7 mos now. Any thoughts on what I should and should not do at this point?

 

[Dr Emily Splichal]

Hi Laura - as you begin to enter the final months of pregnancy I would be very careful with the level of activity you do - and the level of minimal / barefoot activity you do. As we begin to enter the final months of pregnancy a woman's body begins to release the hormone relaxin which will cause all the ligament (including those in the foot) to become lax or loose.

If you want to have the easiest return to activity with minimal changes in your body, I recommend wearing supportive footwear and compression stockings while at work. If you stand long hours on an unforgiving floor, you are asking for unnecessary pain to the feet, legs and lower back.

I am all pro-minimalist and barefoot activity but when your are pregnant you want to preserve your body so that you can return to all your favorite activities and past times with minimal downtime or pain.

Hope this helps!

 

[ladycheshire5]

Thank you. That does help. Disappointed but I'll do what I must.

 

[Longboard]

Hi Laura - as you begin to enter the final months of pregnancy I would be very careful with the level of activity you do - and the level of minimal / barefoot activity you do. As we begin to enter the final months of pregnancy a woman's body begins to release the hormone relaxin which will cause all the ligament (including those in the foot) to become lax or loose............
If you want to have the easiest return to activity with minimal changes in your body, I recommend wearing supportive footwear and compression stockings while at work. ...................
I am all pro-minimalist and barefoot activity but when your are pregnant you want to preserve your body so that you can return to all your favorite activities and past times with minimal downtime or pain.

Doc ES, now you have me wondering.......
As the husband of a mom who gained a half shoe size with each of her three pregnancies, I am fully aware of the relaxin related foot "growth".
Until now I had thought of it as a benefit, allowing the previously perpetually shod foot to have a second chance at "spreading" out to it's designed anatomy.
So now you have me thinking....Do females in habitually barefoot populations undergo the same dimensional changes with each pregnancy, or are their feet already expanded to the design limits and not altered by the hormonal changes?
I had assumed that we only see it because the moms-to-be in the "civilized" cultures had entered pregnancy with deformed "bound " feet.
Do moms in primitive cultures display damage from working hard in bare feet during pregnancy?
Or does running place a much higher load on a barefoot & pregnant lady's feet than a typical day to day workload would thus requiring unnatural support?
Considering you're primarily a proponent of barefoot/minimalist activity I definitely value your opinion.
Thanks for any recommendations you may have.