The Association of Knowledge and Practice of Body Mechanics with Lumbopelvic Pain among Pregnant Women: A Cross-sectional Study

Lumbopelvic pain (LPP) in pregnancy is prevalent. Although poor body mechanics (BM) and lack of posture awareness contribute to LPP, prenatal care services do not address these issues. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of BM awareness and practice with LPP among pregnant women.

In this cross-sectional researchو 110 pregnant women with LPP were enrolled between October 2020 and October 2021 using a convenient sampling technique. The study setting was antenatal care units within Public Primary Health Center in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. For data collection a structured questionnaire comprised of three parts of sociodemographic data, pain Numeric Rating Scale, and 44 images created by the researchers were used to assess both knowledge and practice related to BM via face-to-face interview. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS (version 27).

Over half of the participants (53.6%) demonstrated an awareness of the BM to carry out their everyday tasks, appropriately. However, 55.5% reported that they were engaging in routine tasks improperly. The degree of BM knowledge (P=0.024), and the level of practice (P=0.038) were substantially correlated with lumbopelvic pain. Participants with significant discomfort and improper BM practices showed a higher odds ratio (OR=5.105). The odds ratio (OR=4.581) was greater in patients with extremely acute pain and inadequate BM knowledge.

It is less common for pregnant women to have low back discomfort when there is greater awareness of proper BM and posture during prenatal care sessions.