Hi Thank you for your question to HCM. Disc herniation means the soft material at the centre of the disc comes out through the fibres at periphery and presses on the nerves. With pain killers, physiotherapy, traction, back brace or even injections pain is treated but not the disc herniation. Usually the herniated disc naturally dries up and gets resorbed in about 3 months and stops to be compressive on nerves thus giving pain relief. Other modalities as mentioned above only control pain till it gets resorbed. The answer to your question is you do not need to have surgery before next pregnancy. If you don t have pain/tingling/numbness/weakness the disc does not need to be removed surgically. If these symptoms start always pain killers, physiotherapy, brace and injections are tried first. In a few cases not responding to these lines of management surgery becomes necessary which is done only for pain or increasing weakness. Surgery is the only treatment that treats the herniated disc. All others treat pain associated with it. Simple equation is no symptoms- no surgery. Also, having surgery does not decrease your chances of having disc herniation at another level. Chances of having recurrent disc herniation at the same level are around 10 per cent after surgery. Hope this is helpful. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.