Longitudinal Evaluation of Walking Performance Based on Three-Dimensional Spine Image During Pregnancy and Post-Partum

A series of changes in the body structure of women would happen during pregnancy, 17% have lower back pain, and about 29% to 72% have pelvic lower back pain syndrome. This study focus on the longitudinally performance of gait in the second trimesters (T2), third trimesters (T3) and post-partum (PP) based on spine images. 12 healthy pregnant women were included in this study. The Diers for-metric system was used for spine morphology reconstruction and spine angle and length parameters measurement. Vicon motion system and AMTI force platform were used for gait analysis. For the spatial-temporal parameters, the stride length and walking speed was significantly decreased in T3 compared to PP. The percentage of stance phase was increased in T3. With the development of pregnancy, the fore rake angle of pelvis was significantly increased. In T3, the hip flexion and adduction angles during stance phase were significantly increased, while the hip extension angle was significantly decreased. The ankle joint was found a decreased inversion angle during loading phase in T3. For the ground reaction forces (GRF) parameters, the second impact peak in the vertical direction and anterior-posterior GRF were significantly increased in T2 and T3. In T3, the center of pressure was found a lateral excursion, which implies an detrimental on body stability during pregnancy. These results show that the gait pattern of pregnant women has changed and the body stability has decreased. For women in pregnancy, the gait strategy was changed for better stability. The joint angle of pelvis and hip joint during pregnancy were increased. Thus, it is recommended that women should pay more attention on strengthen the lower back and pelvic muscles during pregnancy. The contact area of the female arch of the pregnancy is larger, so choose the shoes with better arch support is highly recommended.