Including Chiropractic in Your Pre-natal Care
Increasingly, women are including complementary care in their pre-natal routines, many of them benefitting from the services of chiropractors throughout their pregnancies.
A pregnant woman’s body naturally experiences a number of physiological and endocrinological changes that result in additional stress on the framework of the body, at a time when optimal function of all systems and organs is particularly important.
Some of the bodily changes occurring during pregnancy (increased back curve due to abdomen growth, pelvic and postural changes) could cause spinal or joint misalignments. A misaligned pelvis, for example, could restrict the room available for the developing baby, sometimes making it harder for it to move into the correct position for delivery.
Chiropractic care is drug-free health maintenance of the spinal column, discs and related nerves, primarily (but not only) by adjusting misaligned body joints, especially of the spine, to reduce spinal nerve stress and promote overall health of a person. By enhancing nervous system function, chiropractic care during pregnancy can enhance the health of both the mother and baby.
Women who receive pre-natal chiropractic care throughout pregnancy enhance pelvic balance, increasing the chances for optimal baby positioning at delivery and reducing the likelihood for breech and posterior presentations that can lead to difficult deliveries.
The Webster Technique is a technique sometimes used by chiropractors to promote balance in a pregnant mother’s pelvis, alleviating stress to the uterus and its supporting ligaments, making it easier for a breech baby to change position without medical intervention. Statistically, this technique has been quite successful.
Chiropractic adjustments also help to alleviate pain in the lower back and legs from which most pregnant women suffer, and may also help to reduce problems with nausea, headaches and elimination.
Including chiropractic care as a part of your pre-natal routine will help you to maintain a healthy pregnancy. Chiropractors are trained to work with pregnant women and use appropriate techniques and exercises to compliment any spinal adjustments that are necessary, and no known contraindications to pre-natal chiropractic care have been reported. Discuss this option with your pregnancy healthcare provider.