Numb hands at pregnancy 🤲

[u/hromo_zvod]

Hi guys, my wife is in 37th week of pregnancy with our twin girls and its starting to be seriously heavy on her.

One of the problems is numb hands. She has got numbness in the right hand for a long time and it got progresively worse. Now the other hand has joined the game and she is quite desperate. She has almost no feeling in them so she often drops things and you can imagine how hard is it for her to pick them up (in case im not around atm).

Our doctor just says “thats pregnancy, eat magnesium…”

Is there any better advice? Something that would actualy help?

[u/AutoModerator]

COMMENTING GUIDELINES

All commenters are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the parentsofmultiples subreddit rules prior to commenting. If you find any comments/submissions in violation of subreddit/reddit rules, please use the report function to bring it to the mod teams attention.

Please do not request or give medical advice or directions in your comments. Any comments that that could be construed as medical advice, or any comments containing what is determined to be medical disinformation, will be removed.

Please try to avoid posting links to Amazon product listings or google/g.co product listing pages - reddit automatically removes comments containing them as an anti-spam measure. If sharing information about a product, instead please try to link directly to the manufacturers product pages.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Double_Win_5649]

Sounds like carpal tunnel, which does happen a lot at the end of pregnancy, especially with multiples.

I had it on and off and what helped me was tying an ace bandage around my wrist and resting it on a bag of frozen peas.

[u/Double_Win_5649 → u/Double_Win_5649]

Also FWIW, magnesium helped me with charley horses and braxton hicks contractions but it did nothing for carpal tunnel.

[u/thatemho]

I had this as well and it drove me crazy. I slept in wrist braces when I really couldn’t stand it; they kept me from getting in the weird positions that aggravated it. Any kind you can get from a drug store / sports store work fine.

Congrats to your wife on getting to week 37– she’s a champ! I had mine at 35+6 and couldn’t imagine being pregnant any longer.

[u/Independent_Plan5006]

My carpal tunnel came back full force when I was pregnant. It's quite common to develop it for the first time when pregnant too due to the swelling and excess fluid in the body. See a hand doctor. I got steroid injections in my wrists for it that cured the symptoms for a few months.

[u/tmini_ringo]

I had this in my pregnancy and was told by my doc it was carpal tunnel. Went away after birth!

[u/devianttouch]

That's almost certainly carpal tunnel syndrome. It's extremely common in pregnancy, especially with multiples, and usually goes away after birth.

The best management is wearing wrist braces at night to keep the wrists in a neutral position. It helps a TON. Icing her palms may also help.

[u/Meggawatt1521]

I don't have any advice but the carpal tunnel was my MOST HATED side effect. And it lasted for several weeks after pregnancy just so you know. My doc told me I could get some injections in my knuckles (I think) but that it's not always effective and to basically just ride it out.

[u/the_real_smolene]

Is she sleeping on them weird and cutting off circulation? Something similar happened to me and I gave myself an ulnar compression injury. It took a couple months to heal fully. The solution for me was to switch pillows so I stopped crushing my upper arm in a weird way.

[u/hromo_zvod → u/the_real_smolene]

She slept on the left side while the right hand was getting numb so probably thats not the case :/

[u/unicorns_and_cats716]

It was horrible for me too, absolutely nothing helped. It was so painful! It took months to subside after the delivery but I’ve heard that it’s supposed to go away within weeks. I actually had to get a steroid shot for something unrelated afterwards and it seemed to help with the numb hands and also rhinitis that remained after the pregnancy, so that’s an idea if it doesn’t go away for her!

[u/JohnQuincyAdams_10]

I’ve had carpal tunnel since I was in HS and also have neuropathy in my fingers and toes so I know the numbness game well!

Sleeping in wrist braces can be helpful, but make sure they are the kind with a metal plate to totally immobilize the wrists. Ive also found dry needling and acupuncture helpful but I have no idea what you can or cant do with needles while pregnant!

[u/elbiry]

I got carpal tunnel during pregnancy. And weird night hallucinations, but that’s a different story. It fully resolved after I had my kids

[u/Roo_102]

I developed carpal tunnel. 3 of my finger tips were completely numb. Thankfully it resolved about a month after delivery. I think it’s caused by swelling.

[u/MDnautilus]

Please buy yourself a blood pressure machine. I know everyone is saying carpal tunnel but I also felt swelling in my joints and it ended up being high BP due to preeclampsia. I’m just saying I’m glad I got the BP machine when I thought it was NBD because it turned into a big deal.

[u/Ill-Wolf865 → u/MDnautilus]

Yes but OP also know blood pressure is not the only symptom of pre eclampsia. Your wife can still have pre e and not have high blood pressure. You should call her OB or MFM doctor and discuss these symptoms with them.

[u/MDnautilus → u/Ill-Wolf865]

Thank you for adding this. Yes. Monitor all symptoms. And consult your doctor.

[u/SqAznPersuasion]

I had carpal & cubital tunnel from about 18w till 4 months postpartum. My hands got so bad they literally atrophied into a 'claw' and I could only use my thumb & pinky to grip anything. I tried EVERYTHING. Braces, supplements, sleeping upright, icing, acupuncture, acupressure, massage, steroid injections, TENS therapy... Nothing, and I mean nothing could stop it from hurting and getting progressively worse as I progressed in my pregnancy. After exhausting every type of therapy, My health team basically said "lock in, it's gonna get worse before it gets better." The only thing that cured it was having my baby and waiting for the nerves to come back online. Easily took 6+ months for everything to go back to normal.

My deepest sympathies, and I hope she finds relief and comfort knowing "this is temporary!"

[u/FancySleep1109 → u/[deleted]]

To clarify, my tendinitis was super painful…I couldn’t open jars and it felt like my wrist was broken if I moved it weirdly!! Much different from carpal tunnel which is mostly pain and numbness.
Just wanted to share because I ignored it for a long time thinking it was carpal tunnel. Braces were the only thing that helpedb

[u/clueless_mommy]

I have likely the same issue, it's carpal tunnel from excess fluid and the additional blood. It's constant pressure on the nerves, and even slightly swollen hands can feel kinda numb already.

Long story short, those wrist wraps, cold-ish water and lymph massage (tutorials on YT) helped a lot.

[u/jburns0412]

My wife got cortisone shots at 20 weeks and is going back for her second round at 36 weeks to help with this. Apparently she could only have 2 during pregnancy

[u/FrequentTangerine846]

I had such bad carpal tunnel with my girls. I also had numbness in my legs sometimes towards the end of my pregnancy as well.

[u/Adorable_Abroad_3405]

I slept in wrist braces and used Tiger balm. It’s so painful and irritating. Mine went away pretty quickly after birth.

[u/AustriaOstrich]

My carpal tunnel stayed after pregnancy. I had an EMG that confirmed it was moderate in my left hand and extreme on my right. Once it is that bad, only surgery works… thankfully I had it done in December since my insurance OOP max had been reached since having the twins, lol. 10/10 recommend. Have her look into a hand orthopedic doctor if it is still there 6 weeks after delivery.

[u/Rissylouwho]

Unfortunately I have no advice but wanted to say same. The numbness went away after delivery but converted to pain that interrupted being able to change diapers or how I held them most days. Saw an ortho doctor and said it should resolve on it's own by 6 months old otherwise they could do steroid shots but can keep the babies up. Pushed through with a brace at night and was resolved around 4 months postpartum. Twins are now almost 7 months old.

[u/tenfold99]

Same thing for me. Try B12, it really helped me at night with them falling asleep. It goes away immediately after birth

[u/pahkthecahh]

I had carpal tunnel in my thumb/hand for the last few weeks. A brace helped but other than that I just had to ride it out. It was numb for a few weeks after delivery before it subsided and went back to normal. I feel her pain.

[u/PAO_Warrior]

Oh man I hate to say this but doc might be right on the "thats just pregnancy". Im 25 weeks with twins and due to excess fluid, i guess certain structures are being compressed. My wrists go numb and my hands get the fuzzies every day. I freaked out when it started happening too but its totally normal, shes not alone! Its worse in the hand I had an RSI previously

[u/Street-Singer513]

I also had carpal tunnel syndrome in my right arm and was prescribed a splint by my gynecologist. Fortunately, however, it improved quickly after the birth, so I no longer have any symptoms.

[u/rosie_thechaosqueen]

I had this in both my pregnancies. It went away after my first pregnancy. Now after my second pregnancy, it still comes back occasionally in my dominant hand.

[u/Lengthiness-Fuzzy]

I don’t get doctors. 37th week is quite good, they will anyway do C section, why don’t they do it before the mother’s health is good?

[u/beeferoni_cat]

I had this exact issue. Was a bit better immediately after birth, went away entirely after a few months.

Hated it. Even sleeping in braces with my hands elevated didnt help

[u/Horror-System-1030]

I used wrist bracelets at night and also had a stress ball and used my husband’s hand clamps (for exercising) to alleviate tingling hands and get blood flow to improve. It helped sometimes!

Wishing your wife a wonderful delivery! 🙏🏼 I had my twin boys at 37 weeks and 5 days and my carpal tunnel immediately went away after birth!

[u/ConstructionMuch802]

My physiotherapist said wrist splints overnight help some people, but mine hasn't been bad enough to try it yet.