Tag Archives: pregnancy

Chiropractic and Pregnancy: Exploring the Benefits

Chiropractic care has long been recognized for its holistic approach to health and wellness. During pregnancy, this natural form of healthcare can offer significant benefits to expectant mothers, addressing common discomforts and promoting overall well-being. Let’s explore how chiropractic care, mainly through the removal of subluxations, can provide pain relief, improve posture, and enhance overall wellness during pregnancy.

Pain Relief

Pregnancy often brings about various aches and pains, primarily due to the extra weight and altered biomechanics associated with carrying a child. One of the most common complaints is lower back pain. Chiropractors use specific techniques to adjust the spine, targeting misalignments or subluxations that may be causing discomfort. By realigning the spine, chiropractic adjustments can relieve nerve pressure and reduce pain. This non-invasive approach is precious as it provides a drug-free alternative for pain management, ensuring both mother and baby’s safety.

Improved Posture

As pregnancy progresses, the body undergoes significant changes, including a shift in the center of gravity and increased lumbar lordosis (inward curvature of the lower back). These changes can lead to poor posture, which can cause musculoskeletal strain and discomfort. Chiropractic care aims to maintain proper spinal alignment, which helps in supporting better posture. Regular adjustments can correct any deviations caused by the growing abdomen, ensuring that the spine and pelvis are correctly aligned. This alignment is crucial for reducing discomfort and supporting a healthier pregnancy and delivery process.

Overall Wellness

Chiropractic care extends beyond pain relief and posture improvement. By focusing on the nervous system, chiropractors can enhance overall wellness. The nervous system controls and coordinates all bodily functions; optimal performance is crucial during pregnancy. Removing subluxations or misalignments in the spine ensures that the nervous system operates efficiently, which can boost the body’s natural healing processes. This can lead to improved sleep, reduced stress levels, and better digestion, all of which are important for the health of both the mother and the developing baby.

Moreover, chiropractic care can potentially lead to shorter labor and delivery times. Proper pelvic alignment can facilitate a smoother and more efficient birth process. When the pelvis is balanced, it provides more room for the baby to move into the optimal birthing position, potentially reducing complications during delivery.

Chiropractic care offers many benefits for expectant mothers. By removing subluxations, chiropractors can provide pain relief, improve posture, and promote overall wellness. As a noninvasive, drug-free option, chiropractic care is a valuable addition to prenatal care, supporting the health and comfort of both mother and baby throughout pregnancy.

Do you know someone who is expecting?

Please encourage them to make an appointment with us!

(517) 627-4547

 

Pregnancy and Chiropractic

pregnant womanIf there’s any class of patients that need chiropractic care the most it’s pregnant women.

Pregnancy changes a woman’s life in many ways. One way is a special chemical called “relaxin.”

Relaxin is a hormone produced by the ovaries and the placenta that effects the female reproductive system especially during pregnancy. In preparation for childbirth, it relaxes the muscles, joints and ligaments in the pelvis, softens and widens the cervix and relaxes the smooth muscle in the uterus. It does even more by increasing heart and kidney blood output.

In males relaxin enhances the motility of sperm in semen.

Sometimes there’s a down side to relaxin. If the spine and pelvis are unbalanced, or subluxated, then the relaxin can make the subluxations and distortions worse! The result is spine and pelvic pain which is too common in pregnancy. Additionally, the unbalanced body needs more energy for walking, standing, sitting and moving causing fatigue and exhaustion.

Chiropractic can help

Chiropractic can help ensure that the pregnant body is balanced and that the pelvis is relaxed and open to its maximum so the developing baby has the ideal amount of room in which to develop. That is why clinical reports reveal that breech presentations have been corrected, with the fetus turning into a healthy position, as a result of chiropractic adjusting procedures. Clinical reports show chiropractic also helps with breastfeeding and the return to a pre-pregnancy figure. (1-7)

References

  1. Thomas JC. The Webster Technique in a 28-year-old woman with breech presentation and subluxation [case report]. JVSR. April 7 2008:1-3.
  2. Brynhildsen J, Hansson A, Persson A, Hammar M. Follow-up of patients with low back pain during pregnancy. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 1998;91(2):182-186.
  3. Phillips C. An effective drug-free approach to premature contractions. ICA Review. 1998;54(5):76-81.
  4. Phillips C. Back labor: a possible solution for a painful situation. ICA Review. 1997;53(4):51-56.
  5. Cohen E. Case history: premature labor. Chiropractic Pediatrics. 1995;1(4).
  6. Reynolds JP. What is the role of osteopathic manipulative therapy in obstetric care? JAOA. 1974;74.
  7. Guthrie RA, Martin RH. Effect of pressure applied to the upper thoracic (placebo) versus lumbar areas (osteopathic manipulative treatment) for inhibition of lumbar myalgia during labor. JAOA. 1982;82(4):247-251.