Lumbar pain during pregnancy: efficacy of Global Postural Reeducation (GPR) treatment

Abstract

A clinical comparative study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of Global Postural Reeducation (GPR) in low back pain treatment during pregnancy, and its association with pregnant women functional limitations. The subjects were 34 nulliparous women attended in 3 public health units and 1 private hospital in Campinas. All women were at 20-25 weeks gestation and experiencing low back pain. Seventeen women were submitted to 8 GPR weekly consecutive sessions and 17 followed the routine recommendations for treating lumbar pain. In each GPR session the low back pain severity was assessed, before and after procedures. The control group had 3 low back pain intensity and treatment evaluation sessions (at admission, 4 and 8 weeks). Roland Morris questionnaire was applied in order to assess functional limitations in the beginning and at the end of the study. Women in the GPR group had a significant decrease of low back pain severity, before and after each session. Throughout the study, women in the GPR group had significantly lower pain medians and lower functional limitations score means than women in the control group. Covariance analysis pointed out that GPR treatment was associated to lower perceived pain intensity at the end of the follow-up. It is concluded that GPR can be an important contribution to the low back pain treatment during pregnancy and also it would help to reduce the damage caused by functional limitations. This will certainly has a positive influence upon women's quality of life.