Prenatal Chiropractic and a Healthy Pregnancy
Prenatal chiropractic adjustment. Even in third trimester, our prenatal tables allow mom to lie comfortably face-down while getting adjusted! There are many ages and stages of life where specific approaches in chiropractic can be very effective and beneficial. From tiny newborns to our most experienced senior clientele, chiropractic care can increase mobility, health, vitality and enjoyment of life. But, what about the delicate stages of pregnancy? Is chiropractic care safe during pregnancy? As a woman goes through the 40-ish weeks of gestation in preparation for birth, there can be significant amounts of all three kinds of stress: physical, chemical and emotional. As these stresses accumulate, the spine and nervous system act a lot like the electrical panel in your home, where the “stresses build and the breaker flips”. The mobile bones of the spine and pelvis then get locked up and stuck, limiting motion, causing stress on delicate underlying nerves, throwing off the required balance needed for optimal pregnancy, labour and birth. This can be mildly uncomfortable, or downright excruciating. Unfortunately, neck pain, upper back and lower back pain during pregnancy are all too common. Prenatal chiropractic care is used to restore normal function to the spine, ease the stress on the nervous system, and help expecting moms get back to being more active and comfortable. Prenatal chiropractic care can be tremendously beneficial to alleviate these accumulated stresses, restore more normal function to the spine, ease the stress on the nervous system, and ease a ton of stress and tension from the mom-to-be’s life. This can mean better sleep, greater mobility, and more energy. Not only that, but when it comes time for baby to be born, the literature demonstrates that women under chiropractic care may experience shorter labour times, reduced frequency of medical interventions during labour and birth, less trauma to the baby, and greater overall health satisfaction than those not under chiropractic care during pregnancy. But, is it the same chiropractic approach as other people get? Doesn’t pregnancy make it more delicate or different? While we don’t look at pregnancy as a pathology, or a condition to be treated, we do feel that there is a different, and somewhat special, approach that pregnancy requires compared to other clientele. There are some techniques and styles that we use much more frequently when someone is expecting a baby, and there are a few others that we intentionally use less often. In later stages of pregnancy, the natural hormone changes that are helping mom get ready to deliver will increase the laxity, or stretchiness, of the ligaments that hold the spine and pelvis together. This means that usually less force is required to make positive changes, so some techniques are toned down, or even avoided. Manual adjusting can be reduced or eliminated completely. (It’s true, you don’t have to get “cracked” to get adjusted, whether you are pregnant or not!) Further, because there are six ligaments that connect the bones of mom’s pelvis to her womb, balanced function of mom’s spine and pelvis is imperative to allowing baby to get in the right position before birth. We often modify and limit the amount of torsion we introduce into mom’s torso and belly in the later stages of pregnancy, opting for more techniques that are done with mom simply lying prone (face-down). Our special prenatal tables even allow moms to lie face-down comfortably all the way through the third trimester. Prenatal chiropractic care appreciates the nuances of each stage of gestation, and meets mom where she is, to allow for greater benefit, and less stress on mom and baby. There are a couple techniques or approaches within chiropractic that are more often associated with pregnancy, and we are well-versed in those. The most commonly associated technique is the Webster’s Technique. While it isn’t explicitly designed only for pregnancy, it has had a phenomenal track record as being a great approach to balancing the pregnant pelvis, and restoring function in this high-stress area for pregnant moms. We often get calls to “flip” babies that are either breech or transversely oriented (not head down, like you want them to be when you’re trying to have a natural vaginal birth). Webster’s technique is not designed to make the baby move, nor do any of the procedures we use attempt to manually change the position of the baby in the womb. We do find, however, that specific prenatal chiropractic care, often utilizing Webster’s technique, can facilitate a more balanced pelvis and greater function, allowing mom’s body and baby’s body to work together to find a more optimal birth position. Pregnancy is the most important time for an individual to seek that delicate balance between the mobility and stability of the 206 bones of the body, and the optimal function of the nervous system underneath, which controls and coordinates the function of the entire body. It’s true that any time someone benefits from the positive changes that chiropractic care can bring, the people around them benefit as well. (Examples: If husband has fewer headaches, wife has less stress and a better partner. If baby is less colicky, parents get more sleep. If grandma is more mobile and active, she can babysit more often!) But, in pregnancy, we have the opportunity to impact the lives of two people directly! Because of the potential impact on the birth process, the beginning stages of life on the outside for a new baby can be drastically changed when mom undergoes care herself during pregnancy. Simply by reducing the number and extent of medical interventions during pregnancy, the amount of stress and physiological birth injury a baby experiences during birth can be drastically reduced. These injuries and interventions have statistical relationships with later developmental and immunological challenges for kids as they get older. Truly, the best approach to raising healthy kids is to start before they’re born. Other things to support a healthy pregnancy: Exercise – For some women, pregnancy is the first time they’ve thought about conditioning their body for
