Getty Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae El Moussa attend the 47th Annual People's Choice Awards in December 2021
For Heather Rae El Moussa, who will soon star in “The Flipping El Moussas” on HGTV with her husband Tarek El Moussa, awaiting the birth of their first baby is growing more painful by the day. Fans have rallied around the reality star as she’s opened up about a complication that’s causing her daily pain.
Here’s the latest:
Heather Rae El Moussa Says She’s Trying Everything for Pain Relief
Heather, a high-end Los Angeles real estate broker, has been busy filming her two shows — Netflix’s “Selling Sunset,” which she’s been on throughout its six seasons, and HGTV’s “The Flipping El Moussas,” due to premiere in early 2023.
But with her baby boy also due in early 2023, she’s been struggling with sciatic nerve pain, according to her Instagram post on October 19, 2022.
She wrote, “little pregnancy update for you: the baby’s been in a ‘position’ not sure what he’s doing in there, heheheh and it’s been affecting my sciatic nerve. It’s been 10 days so I’m hoping to get some relief soon. The crazy thing is I sat on my mom’s sciatic nerve to the point where she couldn’t even stand up straight so maybe it’s a littleee bit of payback”
Fans filled that post with suggestions for pain relief, from seeing a chiropractor to frequently using heating pads. But in an Instagram Story she posted on November 4, she said the pain has not subsided.
“I’m still in really bad pain, nerve pain,” she said in her uploaded video as she sat in her vehicle wearing a casual black top and large white sunglasses.
“So I’m doing physical therapy once a week and then I tried acupuncture today for the first time, so I’m gonna see if that works,” she continued. “I’m taking all your suggestions, I’m also using heating pad daily, icing, really nothing helps. And it seems like from all my moms I speak to, a lot did not help until baby came out. So I’m hoping that’s not the case because, yeah, it’s painful.”
Heather then said, “I’ve never experienced anything like this before, but, you know, I’m hoping that all these treatments I’m doing are gonna at least relieve some of the pain.”
The following day, November 5, she uploaded a photo of herself in the afternoon, resting on a pillow with her hand on her belly. She wrote that it had “been a long day already” given that she’d gone to a soccer match for Tarek’s seven-year-old son Brayden, whom he shares with ex-wife Christina Hall, and to a real estate event hosted by Tarek.
Along with emojis of a pregnant woman and a face huffing and puffing, she wrote, “I came home to rest, lay on heating pad and put feet up.”
Sciatic Nerve Compression is a Common But Painful Pregnancy Complication
Though many women have periodic back pain during pregnancy, sciatic pain feels like shooting pain down your lower back and legs, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It’s commonly caused by a pinched or inflamed sciatic nerve, which can run from the lower back, down the leg and even into the toes, with pain ranging from mild to severe.
Unfortunately for moms-to-be like Heather, pain typically increases the further along a woman is in her pregnancy. Cleveland Clinic OB/GYN Rebecca Stark says that as the body’s center of gravity shifts, especially in the third trimester, ligaments loosen, and the sciatic nerve can shift and get pinched.
Though treatment can help, including those Heather said she’s trying, full relief doesn’t usually arrive until after the baby is born.
Ed. note: This story was originally published in November 2022.