Round Ligament Pain and Hip Pain During Pregnancy: What's Causing It and How the Webster Technique Helps

It might have started as a sudden, sharp jab low in your abdomen when you rolled over in bed or stood up too quickly. Or maybe it's a deep, persistent ache in your hip that makes it hard to find a comfortable position — sitting, standing, or lying down. Either way, you're growing a baby, you're already managing more than enough, and the last thing you need is pain that nobody seems to have a clear answer for.

Round ligament pain and hip pain are two of the most common discomforts of pregnancy — and two of the most undertreated, because they're so often dismissed as "just part of it." They don't have to be.

This post walks you through what's actually happening in your body, how these two types of pain are more connected than most people realize, and how the Webster Technique — combined with our movement-based approach at CHIRO HAUS — can make the rest of your pregnancy significantly more comfortable.

The round ligaments are a pair of thick, cord-like structures that run from the front of the uterus, through the inguinal canal, and down into the groin and labia. Their job is to help keep the uterus in its forward-tilting position as it grows. During pregnancy, as the uterus expands rapidly — especially in the second trimester — these ligaments are stretched far beyond their resting length. The result is round ligament pain.

Round ligament pain is extremely common and in most cases is not dangerous to you or your baby. But "common" and "something you just have to live with" are not the same thing. When the round ligaments are under excessive tension — particularly when pelvic alignment is off — the pain can be significantly more intense and more frequent than it needs to be. This is where chiropractic care makes a meaningful difference.

Hip pain during pregnancy is a different animal — broader, deeper, and often more relentless than round ligament pain. It can show up as an ache deep inside the hip joint, tightness through the outer hip and buttock, or a grinding sensation when you walk or shift your weight. For some moms it's a dull background presence; for others it's sharp enough to disrupt sleep and limit daily movement.

Several overlapping factors drive hip pain in pregnancy:

Relaxin loosens not just the pelvic ring but the entire fascial and ligamentous system — including the hip capsule itself. This increased mobility sounds like a good thing, but less passive support means your muscles have to work significantly harder to stabilize the joint. Over-recruited hip muscles become tight, tender, and fatigued — and the result is the deep, achy hip pain that many pregnant women describe.

As your belly grows, your center of gravity shifts forward and your lumbar curve increases. To compensate, many pregnant women naturally widen their stance and externally rotate their feet — the classic "pregnancy waddle." While completely understandable, this gait pattern significantly increases the load on the hip rotators, the IT band, and the structures of the SI joint. Over weeks and months, that accumulated load translates directly into hip pain.

The sacroiliac joints — where the sacrum meets the pelvis on either side — are directly connected to the hip in terms of how load is transferred through the lower body. SI joint dysfunction during pregnancy is extremely common and frequently presents as what feels like "hip pain" — a deep ache in the buttock, outer hip, or groin. Many pregnant women are treated for hip pain when the real driver is SI joint restriction or hypermobility. Accurate assessment is essential.

The piriformis muscle — a deep hip rotator that runs from the sacrum to the femur — becomes chronically overloaded during pregnancy as it works to stabilize a pelvis made lax by relaxin. A hypertonic piriformis not only causes deep buttock and hip pain on its own, but can also compress the sciatic nerve and produce the leg symptoms many pregnant women experience alongside their hip pain.

Round ligament pain and hip pain feel different — but they share a common root cause: pelvic imbalance.

When the sacrum is subluxated — misaligned relative to the pelvis — the tension distributed through the round ligaments, the hip capsule, the SI joints, and the surrounding musculature becomes uneven. One side is over-loaded; the other is under-supported. The result is a cascade of pain and dysfunction that can show up as round ligament pain, hip ache, SI joint pain, pubic symphysis discomfort, or some combination of all of them.

This is why treating round ligament pain and hip pain in isolation — stretching the hip, resting, applying heat — often provides only temporary relief. It addresses the symptom without touching the structural imbalance driving it. Restoring sacral alignment and pelvic balance changes the load distribution through the entire system — and that's when both types of pain begin to meaningfully improve.

Most round ligament and hip pain during pregnancy is musculoskeletal and responds beautifully to care. But certain symptoms warrant prompt evaluation — especially during pregnancy. Please don't dismiss these:

At CHIRO HAUS, we screen for these at every initial prenatal visit and will always refer appropriately when something is outside our scope. When in doubt, we would always rather you come in and have us tell you everything is fine than manage something serious on your own.

The Webster Technique is a specific chiropractic analysis and adjustment protocol developed for pregnant patients. At CHIRO HAUS, Dr. Anna is Webster Technique certified — and it's the cornerstone of how we care for prenatal patients dealing with round ligament pain, hip pain, and pelvic discomfort.

Here's what it actually involves:

The first component of the Webster Technique is a specific analysis of the sacrum — the triangular bone at the base of the spine that sits between the two halves of the pelvis. Dr. Anna evaluates how the sacrum is positioned and moving relative to the ilium on each side, identifies any restriction or misalignment, and then performs a gentle, low-force adjustment using a drop table to restore normal sacral mechanics.

Correcting sacral alignment directly reduces the asymmetric tension on the round ligaments (which attach to the uterus near the sacral insertions) and restores balanced load distribution through both SI joints and hips. For many moms, this single component produces immediate, noticeable relief in both round ligament and hip pain.

The second component of the Webster Technique is direct, gentle soft tissue work on the round ligaments themselves, as well as the supporting structures of the pelvis — the psoas, the iliacus, and the abdominal fascia. This is performed with the mother lying on her back and involves very light, specific pressure applied at precise anatomical points. It releases the accumulated tension in the ligament tissue itself, addressing the pain at the source rather than just at the joint level.

It's important to be clear about what the Webster Technique does and does not do. It does not manually turn a breech baby — that is a medical procedure called External Cephalic Version (ECV) performed by an OB. What the Webster Technique does is restore optimal pelvic balance and reduce uterine tension, giving your baby the best possible environment to settle into an optimal position naturally. Many of our patients in the third trimester choose Webster care both for pain relief and to support their baby's positioning heading into birth.

The Webster Technique is the foundation — but it's not the whole picture. At CHIRO HAUS, every prenatal patient receives care that integrates the Webster adjustment with a broader movement-based approach.

Before any treatment begins, every new patient at CHIRO HAUS goes through a movement screen. For prenatal patients, this is modified for pregnancy and focuses on identifying movement restrictions in the hips, thoracic spine, and pelvis that are contributing to pain. Round ligament pain driven by a tight psoas looks different from round ligament pain driven by a rotated sacrum — and the screen helps us tell them apart.

Alongside the Webster Technique, we address the specific hip muscles that are overworking — the piriformis, glutes, hip flexors, and IT band — with targeted soft tissue release. This reduces the secondary muscle pain that develops on top of the structural imbalance and accelerates how quickly you feel better.

Between visits, your care continues at home through a personalized TrueCoach program — sent directly to your phone, with video demonstrations for every exercise. For round ligament and hip pain, this typically includes gentle hip mobility work, diaphragmatic breathing to manage intra-abdominal pressure, and targeted glute activation to reduce the demand on the hip rotators. Simple, effective movements you can do in 10–15 minutes.

We'll also walk you through specific modifications for daily activities that are aggravating your pain — how to get in and out of the car, how to roll over in bed without triggering a round ligament spasm, sleep positioning with a pregnancy pillow, and how to manage long periods of sitting or standing. Small changes in how you move through the day can make a significant difference in how often pain interrupts it.

Your baby is always welcome at both visits. If you need to nurse an older sibling, tend to a toddler, or adjust positions for comfort, please do — we'll work right around you.

Yes. The Webster Technique is appropriate and safe throughout all three trimesters of pregnancy. The specific adjustments and positioning are modified based on your trimester and comfort — in the third trimester we use side-lying positioning and additional bolster support so you're never uncomfortable on the table. Dr. Anna has completed specialized postgraduate training in the Webster Technique and has extensive experience applying it across all stages of pregnancy.

Classic round ligament pain is sharp, brief, and triggered by sudden movements — it typically eases within a few seconds to minutes and is not accompanied by bleeding, fever, or contractions. If your abdominal pain is constant, severe, accompanied by other symptoms, or simply doesn't feel like the brief, movement-related pain described above, please contact your OB or midwife first. When in doubt, always get it checked. We would always rather you rule out something serious before coming to see us.

Any time. We see prenatal patients from their first trimester through their final weeks before delivery. Round ligament pain typically peaks in the second trimester (14–28 weeks), so many patients first come to us in that window — but there's real value in starting earlier to stay ahead of the postural changes that accumulate as the pregnancy progresses. Earlier care usually means more comfortable months ahead.

You don't need a referral or permission — but we do encourage you to keep your OB or midwife informed about your care. We're happy to collaborate with your provider and can share notes if requested. If you have a high-risk pregnancy or any specific concerns, we'll factor that into our approach from the very first visit and will always defer to your OB's guidance when there's any question about safety.

Yes — and this is one of the reasons many of our patients continue Webster care right up until their due date. A well-aligned, mobile pelvis with balanced ligament tension gives your baby the best environment to move into an optimal position for birth, and gives your body the best structural foundation for labor. Many of our patients report feeling more prepared and more confident heading into delivery after consistent prenatal chiropractic care.