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The most common thing I tell pregnant women when they come into the office for XYZ is “just because it’s common, doesn’t mean it’s normal”. Things like the low back pain, sciatica, round ligament pain, tailbone pain, pubic bone pain etc. Just because they are “common” in pregnancy, doesn’t mean you have to go through 9 months of it grinning and silently suffering because it’s “common” and “will go away after birth”. Women that get adjusted during pregnancy say that their pregnancies are more enjoyable, comfortable, have shorter less painful labors and fewer interventions. Most importantly, getting adjusted during pregnancy helps mom to prepare for the birth physically, mentally and emotionally. I don’t know how many moms I’ve seen now that say “If I had only known sooner”.
All of these are mainly symptoms and as Chiropractors we work with your pelvis and nervous system to get to the root cause. When your pelvis and the structures attached to it are moving and functioning normally, you tend to not have these “common” aches and pains through pregnancy. When the pelvis is subluxated or misaligned, it causes all the structures attached to it to be misaligned as well. For example, take symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD). When the pubic bone/front of the pelvis gets misaligned, it causes those tiny ligaments and tendons holding your pubic bones together to stretch and stay stretched. Now this is not fun during pregnancy because the hormone relaxin is already making our ligaments and tendons more laxed. If we have a misalignment on top of that, it causes a lot of instability and issues like SPD. We really need to look beyond the aches and pains though and see what these pelvic misalignments really cause. When the pelvis is misaligned, it prevents proper position of baby, possibly causing what’s known as back labor or baby could be breech. Baby can get “stuck” in the birth canal causing more interventions like forceps, vacuum, episiotomy for C-section. Your uterus is also attached to your pelvis and when the uterus is torqued or twisted due to a pelvic misalignment, it can also prolong labor. The uterus won’t be able to contract and relax as efficiently as it could. A misaligned pelvis also won’t allow the pelvis to move and expand as it should to make room for baby to pass through the birth canal.
Chiropractors also work with your nervous system, the very system you live your everyday life through. If your nervous system isn’t functioning at 100%, it may not be adapting to the new stressors being placed upon it as efficiently as it could. Unfortunately we live in a stressful world and being pregnant adds to those stressors. Not only do we need to worry about growing this whole other person, we also worry about reading the right books, going to prenatal appointments, the weight gain, bigger feet and untimely gust of wind that comes out of our bottoms. Getting adjusted helps by simply restoring balance and motion to the pelvis and makes sure the nervous system is functioning at 100%. This will allow the body to work the way it’s meant to and the nervous system will regulate the entire birth process normally. Making sure baby is in the right position, the uterus contracts and relaxes progressively, that baby has room to move down the birth canal and the pelvis opens to allow baby to be born as smoothly as possible. Getting adjusted throughout pregnancy ultimately allows mom to have a more pleasant pregnancy, shorter labor times, less interventions and a faster recovery.
Now if you do get adjusted during pregnancy just make sure that you’re getting adjusted by a Webster Certified Chiropractor. That means that they have had extra training in pregnancy care and will have more knowledge to answer your pregnancy questions as well. You can find a Webster Certified Chiropractor in your area here. Again, I hope you enjoyed and learned something from the blog. Please feel free to email us or comment with any questions! Until next time, get checked and adjusted! info@fulshearkatychiro.com
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