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Chiropractic care can be beneficial through so many stages of life, including when women are thinking about getting pregnant, having trouble with conception, are pregnant and even after the baby is born. These times in a woman’s life are both beautiful and challenging and filled with so many changes that can be supported through chiropractic care. Here we are breaking down some of the many benefits of prenatal and postpartum chiropractic care.
Fertility
Becoming pregnant is hard. Now let me be clear, chiropractic does NOT treat infertility, but it can oftentimes help the body to conceive easier. Hormones have to be on track, ovulation has to be on time and about a million other things have to occur physiologically for conception to occur. One of the things that may make it more challenging for conception to occur is if the nervous system is out of whack. There are several nerves that communicate with the reproductive organs and affect hormone balances, and it is important that they are functioning optimally without interference. Chiropractic adjustments can help reduce these interferences to ensure the body’s physiological reactions are occurring optimally.
When a mother is expecting and carrying a child the body goes through a lot of changes, and the mother’s ability to adapt to those changes is crucial. Everything that the mother experiences during pregnancy, the fetus is also experiencing in some way. On approximately the 16th day after conception, the foundation for the baby’s spinal cord and brain begin to form. This foundation develops into the nervous system and it continues to develop throughout the entire pregnancy. As the baby grows and develops in the womb, it learns to adapt to things that the mother is experiencing. When a mother tends to have a lot of stress throughout her pregnancy, the child’s nervous system tends to become hardwired for stress which may make it harder for the child to handle and adapt to future stressors as they grow and develop. Chiropractic care can help to minimize stress in pregnant patients which can help provide a more optimal environment for the baby to develop and grow in utero.
Pain
All of these changes during pregnancy can cause significant discomfort for Moms. Throughout pregnancy, there is a hormone that circulates in the body called relaxin, which allows for muscles, joints, and ligaments to loosen up with the ultimate goal of making more room for the baby and opening up the pelvis for delivery. As relaxin circulates, the lower back becomes more mobile, and postural changes may occur for the mother potentially leading to musculoskeletal conditions. Symptoms associated with these musculoskeletal conditions may include lower back pain, sciatica, pubic bone pain, round ligament pain, buttock pain, mid back pain, rib pain, neck pain, headaches, and more. These musculoskeletal conditions look different on everyone and being evaluated by a chiropractor can help determine if chiropractic care is right for you to aid in managing your symptoms during these special 40 weeks of life.
Sometime around the 30th week for pregnancy, your OB, Midwife, or whoever you may be using to support your pregnancy, may assess the baby to see what position they are in. If the baby is found to be in an undesirable position where the head is facing down, the baby is said to be breech. Chiropractic care utilizes a specific technique called Webster Technique to bring balance to the pelvis in order to help reposition the baby. The uterus, where the baby is, attaches to the pelvis of the mother through the Round Ligament. Imbalances in the mother’s pelvis, sacrum, or lumbar spine can cause torsion or twisting of these ligaments which leads to something called intrauterine constraint. This means that the baby doesn’t have as much room to move around as they should, making them more likely to get stuck in a breech position. Chiropractic care can help bring balance back to these areas of the spine and pelvis in order to reduce the tension on the round ligament and minimize the intrauterine constraint. Ultimately by removing the intrauterine constraint, the baby regains that extra room to move around which increases the chances of the baby repositioning back into an optimal position for birth.
Reduced Labor Times
When the body learns to be in a relaxed state and have balance between the sympathetic (stress) and parasympathetic (relaxed) nervous system throughout pregnancy, it is more likely to adapt to find calmness and relaxation during labor. Being able to stay relaxed during labor, breathe, and keep calm can help significantly reduce labor times. Those who are sympathetically driven in their nervous system tend to have longer and more difficult labors. Consistent chiropractic care can greatly help to balance the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems to prevent and manage sympathetic dominance during times of stress, such as labor.
Birth Trauma
Labor and delivery are often difficult for both mom and baby – it’s called labor for a reason. The strenuous work that mom goes through to get the baby out, whether through a cesarean or vaginal delivery, can put a toll on her body. Stressors occur for the baby as well when they pass through the birth canal and also if interventions such as forceps or vacuum extraction are utilized during delivery. The process of bringing a baby into the world is beautiful and OBs, Midwives, and other birth practitioners do a fantastic job making that process as safe as possible. However, this doesn’t minimize the stress that occurs to the mother or baby. Visiting a chiropractor after the birthing process to be assessed and adjusted for subluxations that may have occurred due to the stresses of labor or delivery is important for both mom and baby in order to support optimal function for each of them.
Whether you are 5 hours postpartum, 5 weeks postpartum, or 5 years postpartum you are still a postpartum mom. The changes that occur during pregnancy last a lifetime, and chiropractic can be a great tool to support both the changes that occur immediately after birth as well as longer-lasting changes. Rehabilitation for the pelvic floor and abdomen is always a very important place to start after delivery. Breastfeeding difficulties and aches and pains that may develop during postpartum as the body starts to return to “normal” are all common things chiropractors may be able to help you with. As with many of these other categories, co-management with other professionals is often needed. But, by optimizing your nervous system through chiropractic care, your body is able to recover more effectively.
Chiropractic care is simple in concept yet is impactful in so many ways. During a time such as this when so many different changes are occurring, it’s comforting to know that chiropractic is able to also help in so many different ways.
If you thinking of starting a family, currently pregnant or postpartum here you can find more information about how Rise Chiropractic & Nutrition may be able to help you.
Pregnancy is hard, don’t make it any harder than it has to be.
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