Does Pregnancy Change Your Feet?

Pregnancy does a lot of things to a woman’s body, including changing your feet! I recently had a visit to the podiatrist to deal with some of the issues going on with my feet after three pregnancies! I am happy to say that we identified the problems and are now on the way to fixing them!  So, how exactly does pregnancy change your feet? There are several ways…

First off, the extra weight that your body carries while pregnant can cause your arches to collapse. The same thing can happen to people like masons who carry heavy objects as a regular part of their job. The added stress of the weight (and the hormone relaxin) can cause the tendons that keep your arch supported to loosen. This results in collapsed or “fallen” arches. Due to the arches collapsing and tendons relaxing, you may notice your feet going up a size!

Last week I had to pay a visit to the podiatrist because I developed a black toenail that was painful and not improving. I had a feeling it was going to need to get drained, and my hunch was right. After slicing into the big toenail on my left foot, it was drained and the toenail was surgically removed to inspect my nail bed (which can sometimes be damaged when this happens). The nail bed was fine, but we then took some x rays to figure out why I developed the black toe nails after my last half marathon (there were a couple of other damaged toenails) and some blood blisters under the balls of my feet. I have also been experiencing intermittent numbness around the third and fourth toes on my right foot.

The x rays revealed that my metatarsals are definitely absorbing more force than they should be. There is some osteonecrosis on my right foot in the area of the numbness. The inflammation is irritating my nerves there and causing the numbness. After looking at several views, we determined that orthotics are going to be necessary to help correct my foot problems. I am really hoping they will get my feet back on track! I go in this Thursday to get the casts made, and thank goodness my insurance covers them!

The above resulted from increased loading on my forefoot and lots of downhills in my last half. It will grow back normally and hopefully be relieved by correcting the way my foot lands in my running gait!

Did your feet change after pregnancy?