Oh, Baby: Chiropractic and Pregnancy
Adding a new member to your family is often exciting, scary and everything in between! From conception to birth, postpartum and beyond, you deserve to feel supported and to feel your best. There are many tools available to help you and your family, chiropractic care is one that can make a positive impact throughout your entire journey!
Fertility and Conception
There are a wide variety of factors that impact fertility. According to the American Pregnancy Association, “Fertility issues may be associated with improper nervous system function, poor nutrition, high stress, and poor lifestyle habits.”
Chiropractic not only focuses on helping your live a healthy lifestyle, chiropractors are also experts in supporting the nervous system, the the most important system of the body! The nervous system consists of the brain, spinal cord, and all the nerves that feed into and control other functions of the body. Specifically, as it relates to fertility, the nerves in the low back feed into and control the reproductive organs. By removing obstructions in the nervous system called subluxations through chiropractic, you’re supporting your body’s natural ability help your reproductive organs functional at their best!
Pregnancy
One of the big questions we hear from expecting mothers is if chiropractic care is safe during pregnancy. According to multiple resources, including the American Pregnancy Association, there are no known contraindications to chiropractic care throughout pregnancy. In fact, the research shows that chiropractic can provide a number of benefits for expecting mothers.
While you are going through a lot of changes that require emotional support, your body is going through a lot of changes that require physical support as well. Dr. Laura is fully certified in the Webster Technique for perinatal care, which means she is specially trained to provide the best, customized care possible for pregnant women.
Receiving safe, effective adjustments throughout pregnancy reduce interference to your nervous system, which coordinates all of the systems and functions in your body. Removing these interferences, or subluxations, helps create a state of balance in the pelvic muscles, ligaments and bone structures allowing for a safer and easier birth and alleviates many of the common issues below that women face during pregnancy.
Relieving back, neck and joint pain Approximately 50 percent of pregnant women will experience back pain at some point before they deliver. As your body prepares for labor and delivery, it produces a hormone that relaxes and loosens all the ligaments and joints in your pelvic area. This may cause some to experience instability and pain as supporting ligaments become much looser and more fragile. In addition, your growing belly can also bring with it some changes in posture (really, how could it not?!), which can throw the spine out of alignment and trigger back pain. In addition, the baby’s increasing weight coupled with the expansion of the mom’s uterus causes the compression that leads to sciatica. Chiropractors use a low-force, gentle style of adjustments when caring for mothers-to-be offering a safe option to alleviate back pain without the use of painkillers. A study published in the journal Chiropractic and Manual Therapies found that 85% of pregnant patients had significant improvements in pain within three months of receiving chiropractic treatments for back and pelvic problems. Another study showed that chiropractic was more effective than standard medical care for alleviating pregnancy-related back pain. In both studies, there were no serious adverse effects of treatment.
We all know life doesn’t stop just because you’re pregnant – you still have work, other kids and activities and obligations. Regular adjustments can help correct posture and spinal curvature to keep you moving at your best.
Our overall health has greatly improved. Chronic back and leg pain have all but disappeared, and pregnancy has been a dream because of regular adjustments. Friends and family have noticed the ease of my pregnancies and deliveries and commented on our children's disposition and health. - C. Family
Controlling nausea and morning sickness Nausea, or morning sickness, is a very common - and very unpopular - part of pregnancy that is caused by hormonal shifts. Chiropractic can help reduce morning sickness by realigning your spine and improving overall nervous system function. As a result, your hormones can achieve a healthier balance to eliminate or lessen the severity of nausea and vomiting Reducing the time of labor and delivery Your nerves are responsible for controlling your contractions and dilating your cervix during labor and delivery — meaning optimal nerve health can help you experience a faster labor and easier delivery. Regular adjustments throughout your pregnancy can help make sure your pelvis, spine, and hips are properly aligned and that your nerves are in optimal working function to support a quicker delivery with less pain and discomfort. I feel more confident in my true abilities and that I am a leader in my own care. Knowing that I was taking an active role in my alignment and the baby's positioning reinforced my belief that I would birth easily. – Lisa Preventing a potential cesarean delivery
Babies in a reach position can often lead to issues including a highly difficult vaginal delivery, cord prolapse, or cesarean (C-section) delivery. When a mother’s pelvis is out of alignment, the ligaments that connect from the pelvis to the uterus increase their tension (tone) resulting in a distortion to the uterine space. The chiropractic adjustment to the pelvis releases tension to the ligaments and uterus so that the baby can move freely and assume the best possible position for birth. I began chiropractic care while Judah was 41 weeks in utero. The midwife was concerned that his positioning would require an inversion or even a c-section! But within a few days of care, Judah was head down and we had a wonderful delivery with no complications. Since birth, Judah has been my most alert, active baby so far.
Maintaining a Healthy Mom AND Baby! The goal of chiropractic care is to address and remove nerve obstructions in the spinal column that may be preventing your organs and immune system from functioning at optimal levels. The stronger and healthier your immune system, the stronger and healthier your baby’s immune system will be, too!
Friends and family have noticed how healthy our family is. We are not chronically ill, we do not take medications, and I've had two perfectly healthy pregnancies and one (soon-to-be two) healthy child. - Izzy B.