Chiropractic Care for Pregnant Women

Chiropractic Care During Pregnancy

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Why should a pregnant woman see a chiropractor?

In short, because they want the easiest-possible pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Chiropractic care is gentle, safe, and effective for helping relieve pain, ease labor, and facilitate delivery. The spine is under a lot of stress during pregnancy, especially later stages. This stress has a serious effect on the central nervous system and brain health. Keeping the spine and pelvis in proper alignment and proper motion can make a tremendous difference.

How often should I go to the chiropractor while pregnant?

Many pregnant women who receive care in our office were already under regular wellness care before becoming pregnant. This is ideal because the spine, pelvis, and nervous system are all in ideal health and function and it helps in pain relief, mobility, hormonal balance, and stress relief. Then all we have to do is maintain this ideal state throughout pregnancy. Some women prefer to be checked once a week throughout pregnancy, some go every other week, and others once per month.

Can you crack your back while pregnant?

A person should be very careful in cracking their own back. I have seen many injuries from people trying to twist themselves into a pretzel to relieve pain. I have also seen many people injured from other people who “saw a chiropractor do it on YouTube” so they are now Doctors of Chiropractic and go around popping/ cracking their friends’ backs. Cracking your back has nothing to do with an actual adjustment! A proper adjustment specifically finds the subluxation/ misalignment (harder than actually adjusting it), applies the exactly-appropriate technique in the precise line of drive to correct it, and uses just the amount of force necessary.

Can you get massages while pregnant?

YES, massage can be very, very helpful to pregnant women. Any certified massage therapist or bodyworker knows the do’s and don’ts to keep women safe. We can make recommendations for good therapists in the area.

When do I tell my chiropractor I’m pregnant?

RIGHT AWAY! I know that many people do not wish to share that they’re pregnant with friends and family right away for various reasons. They don’t yet wish to make it public. I get that. Sharing with your Doc is not public sharing! Of course we’re held to doctor-patient confidentiality! Knowing a patient is pregnant helps us tailor our care to your specific needs.

Can you lie on your stomach while pregnant?

Most moms can lie on their stomach for the first month or so. Luckily God designed women well and they tend to know when it’s uncomfortable for themselves and for their baby inside. We do have pregnancy-specific pillows that have a “donut” hole in the middle to allow women to lie face down so we can properly check their spinal and pelvic alignment.

Can chiropractic adjustments cause miscarriage?

No, chiropractic care cannot cause miscarriages. Many people do not know the level of training that chiropractors undergo to become licensed Doctors of Chiropractic. With 4 years minimum of undergraduate studies and 4 years of Doctoral training followed by internship and rigorous licensure exams, we have to know what we’re doing before being allowed to take care of you. We are trained in what methods are safe and what methods are unsafe in making adjustments. Proper chiropractic care is safe, gentle, and effective. We take stress OFF the neuro-spinal system, we don’t add to it or make it worse.

So this is about chiropractic care in our office and pregnancy, primarily geared toward women.

Pregnancy can be a very, very trying time on a mama or expecting mama. We do love taking care of pregnant women. We find that they all basically have the same goal, to have a very healthy, safe, pain-free pregnancy labor and delivery. And we can support with all those processes because we help the spine. Anyone who's already gone through a full pregnancy knows it. The pregnancy puts a lot of stress on the spine, both because there's a lot more weight on the spine, but also because the hormonal changes change the ligaments in the muscles so that the body doesn't have as much support.

So what we do is we do a very thorough analysis, we don't x-ray pregnant women, but we can analyze through our posture photographs, our palpation and our complete skeletal and spinal neurological examination of pregnant women. And what we do is we find the alignment of the spine during the pregnancy process, if there's the slightest rotation in the pelvis or in the hips or in the spine, as the pregnancy develops, that can increase the pain, the difficulty and the challenge in the labor and the delivery. What we do is analyze and we make gentle adjustments to the spine, the neck, the mid-back, the lower back to help realign the spine and take the pressure off the nerves and help the nerves that control the body be as healthy and relaxed as possible.

There are studies about it relaxing the nervous system of the body during pregnancy, about the spine healing and functioning better, but of course, about better pain, no pain, less pain in the body, as well as just feeling much better. Women who get adjusted during pregnancy report a much, much better pregnancy, labor and delivery. There's also a technique that we perform called the Webster technique which has an 84% success rate of turning breech babies. And the reason is because when the spine or pelvis distorts and twists, it twists the uterus. Most of the ligaments of the uterus suspend from the pelvis and the lumbar spine. So when that twists up, the baby gets twisted and jammed up, which is one very important reason why we adjust so many babies at birth as well, but it's best to have that mother's spine aligned and perfectly healthy before the pregnancy ends and the labor and the delivery. So if you'd like to find out if we can help you have a better, safer, healthier pregnancy, just don't hesitate to give us a call.

Chiropractic Care During Pregnancy

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