1. Back Pain Relief: Chiropractic care can help prevent and relieve back pain associated with pregnancy. Pregnancy is tough on the body’s skeletal structure, especially as baby grows and gets heavier! The weight of your expanding belly changes your posture and spinal curvature, and chiropractic can help correct posture problems and help your spine keep its intended curve.

Consider the following aspects of pregnancy that cause stress on your body:

• Rapid increase/decrease in weight

• Postural changes--Protruding abdomen and increased back curve

• Changes in sleep patterns & positions

• Altered appetite and eating habits

• Loosening of body ligaments to allow for growth/labor

• Flat feet/pronation due to weight gain/loose ligaments

• Emotional changes (hormonal shifts/new family stress)

2. Ease Pregnancy Symptoms: Chiropractic can help ease pregnancy symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting. It doesn’t work for all women, but chiropractic is one way to try to get some relief from morning sickness. If the nausea and vomiting is due in part to nerves pinched by out-of-place vertebrae, an adjustment will help remedy the problem.

3. Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby: The main premise of chiropractic care is to allow the body to heal itself by removing obstructions to the nerves in the spinal column. When the nerves allow the brain and the body to communicate freely, the body is able to work as it was designed. Chiropractic helps ensure a healthy immune system for both mom and baby, whose immune systems are very intimately connected during pregnancy.

4. Better Positioning for Baby: Chiropractic can help position baby correctly for birth. If the hips and lower spine are out of place, baby could end up sideways, posterior or breech–none of which are ideal positions for labor and birth. Chiropractic adjustments can thus help get baby in the proper position, by ensuring that there are no vertebrae out of place.

Webster Technique: This technique is used specifically for pregnant women. It is a specific sacral adjustment to help facilitate the mother's pelvic alignment and nerve system function along with releasing any round ligament tension. This in turn balances pelvic muscles and ligaments, reduces torsion to the uterus. This offers a greater potential for optimal fetal positioning.

5. Better Labor and Birth: Chiropractic adjustments can help shorten labor and make the birth process easier. If the mother’s spine and hips are in proper alignment, and if all the nerves to the muscles and organs in her body are free and healthy, labor and birth can progress more easily and possibly take less time than if there was an alignment issue. For moms desiring a drug-free natural birth, chiropractic care can help them accomplish that goal.

ABSOLUTELY! During pregnancy most women experience pain and discomfort as their bodies adapt to the many changes taking place inside. Women who receive chiropractic care throughout pregnancy experience greater comfort, less pain, shorter labor and delivery times. As a whole these mothers experience vitality and health throughout their pregnancy and are better prepared to deal with the stress that comes along with childbirth.

Chiropractic adjustments do not harm the pregnant mother or her unborn child. In fact, maintaining a healthy spine and nervous system throughout pregnancy can prevent further postural problems that might occur during and following childbirth.

HOW CAN CHIROPRACTIC CARE HELP DURING LABOR:

Better Positioning for Baby: Sometimes, baby isn’t in the optimal position for delivery, which may cause labor to stall or cause back labor especially if baby is occiput posterior. Getting adjusted during labor can help baby to get into a better position to help speed up labor and delivery.

Balance out Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Nervous System: If mother is stuck in a sympathetic state (fight or flight mode), this can cause labor to stall as well. Certain adjustments and ligament work can calm the body by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system helping the mother to relax and allow labor to resume.

REASONS FOR POSTPARTUM CHIROPRACTIC CARE

Speed Up the Recovery Time: Chiropractic adjustments quicken recovery time by restoring overall pelvic and spinal biomechanics allowing the body to focus on healing.

Overcome Postural Changes: The hormonal and postural changes of pregnancy combined with the stress of delivery itself and the new stress of holding baby, carrying the baby in a car seat, etc. can cause tremendous alterations to a mother’s posture. Getting regular adjustments can help combat the daily postural stress that comes with having a new baby.

Helps Avoid Postpartum Depression: Removing interference in the upper cervical region through chiropractic adjustments is imperative for mother’s wellbeing.

***1975 study published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association indicates that "post-partum depression is a rarity in patients receiving manipulative [adjustment] therapy."

Reduces Back Strain due to Breastfeeding: The first few months the mother will find herself sitting and holding baby while nursing quite often, which can shift the posture and cause strain on the wrist, neck, or back. ***Stress on the T3 and T4 nerve can reduce milk supply!!!

Pelvic Rehabilitation: Adjustments of the lumbar and sacroiliac (SI) region along with improving core and pelvic strength can not only help improve proper biomechanics of the pelvis, but they can also help restore function of the Pelvic Floor muscles.

RELAXIN: Research shows that the ligaments begin to re-tighten nearly 8 weeks after giving birth, but the process length can be different for each woman, taking up to a year or more. Relaxin can remain in the body until up to 4 weeks after breastfeeding subsides. As long as relaxin remains in the body, a women is prone to pelvic instability and misalignments throughout the spine. It is critical to work with a qualified chiropractor before ligaments begin to tighten, as it can cause long-term problems if the joints are not properly aligned.

Nutritional Support: Ensure that mother is getting proper nutrition to heal as well as provide a sufficient milk supply to feed her baby.