Is Chiropractic Safe for Pregnancy?

There are numerous physical complaints a mother-to-be can have during pregnancy: back pain, neck pain, pelvic pain, swollen feet, pain in the buttocks…, the list goes on. Many women seek help from their OBGYN, only to find their options limited. Most OBs won’t prescribe medication -- for good reason – and some moms are left to believe they must suffer through it.

Nothing can be farther from the truth. Chiropractic therapy is a safe, holistic way to treat the aches and pains of pregnancy.

How can a chiropractor help? The majority of pain generated during pregnancy comes from the changes that occur to the mother’s body as the baby grows. As the abdomen expands forward, the lumbar spine is pulled into an exaggerated curve known as hyperlordosis. This puts pressure on the joints and muscles of the lower-back, buttocks and legs, and thus generates pain.

The pelvis also begins to tilt forward as the pregnancy progresses, putting pressure on the muscles and ligaments. This leads to changes in gait as the mother attempts to cope with her ever-changing center of balance. This can lead to further back pain, as well as neck pain, leg pain and sciatica.

Round ligament pain is another pregnancy-specific pain. It presents as sharp pain on either side of the abdomen that usually begins in the second semester.

To address these issues a chiropractor will use safe, gentle manipulation of ligaments, muscles and joints to relieve pressure, realign joints and generally make everything bearable again.

Chiropractic care helps optimize your body to ease deliver. We have had many pregnant patients tell us that when it came time to give birth, they had relatively quick, easy deliveries. One patient’s OBGYN was so amazed at her easy delivery, he asked what she had been doing to prepare. When she told him she had been seeing a chiropractor, he told her to give us a call and thank us!

Absolute Healthcare has been successfully treating perinatal complaints for 10 years. Feel free to give us a call and our doctors can talk you through how we can help with your pain.

Author

Joseph Pate, D.C. Doctor of Chiropractic