Pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain and pregnancy massage : findings from a subgroup analysis of an observational study

Background: Pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain (PPGP) significantly impacts women’s lives both physically and psycho-logically. Given the severity and impact of PPGP on pregnancy, the authors antici-pated that pregnant women with PPGP might respond differently to massage than pregnant women without PPGP. Purpose: The aim of the study was to fur-ther analyze a published 2017 study to as-sess the response of pregnancy massage in participants with and without PPGP. Setting: Two massage clinics, one in Sydney and one in Melbourne, recruited participants from December 2016 to December 2017. Participants: Nineteen women with PPGP and 78 without PPGP. Research Design: PPGP and non-PPGP women receiving at least one massage, with outcome measures assessed immediately prior to and after massage, and again one week postmassage. Main Outcome Measures: Visual analog scales for pain, stress, range of move-ment, sleep, and self-reported side effects of massage. Results: Both groups changed significantly and similarly over time for measures of pain, stress, range of motion, and sleep (all p < .05). Post hoc analysis found significant reduction in all outcome measures immediately following massage, but returned to baseline at one week postmas-sage for all measures except pain, which remained reduced for the PPGP group (49.79±25.68 to 34.75±34.75, p = .03, effect size 0.593), and stress remained reduced in the non-PPGP group (33.36±21.54 to 24.90±19.18, p = .002, effect size 0.373). The PPGP group entered the study with higher baseline levels of pain (p = .01) and a greater restriction in range of motion (p = .006) than the non-PPGP group. There was no difference in the number of side effects experienced between the two groups (p = .130). Conclusions: Although PPGP clients report greater pain and restriction in range of motion at baseline than non-PPGP clients, the response to pregnancy massage was similar. Results support a role of pregnancy massage in the management of PPGP. More research on massage for PPGP is needed to confirm a lasting effect of pain reduction from massage.