 Your
Body, Your Baby.
Chiropractic for pregnant women?
Absolutely! It is one of the best things that can be done for
the mother-to-be and the baby-to-be. In fact if there's one group
of people who need chiropractic spinal checkups more than any
other, it's pregnant women.
Pregnant women are taking more
responsibility for their bodies. They are reading more, asking
more questions, eating better, exercising more and exploring
healthier way; of taking care of themselves.
For that reason chiropractic care should be considered an essential
part of the pregnant women's health care regime.
Spinal Nerve Stress
In order to understand how chiropractic
care is important for ante natal care we should first learn what
chiropractic is: a method of keeping the body free from spinal
nerve stress. Spinal nerve stress upsets body function, interferes
with health and causes disease. It is however, important to note
that chiropractic is a method of ensuring that
the spinal column is functioning properly. The chiropractor examines
the spinal column for misalignments causing spine and nerve stress
which can damage the nervous system and affect the workings of
the entire body. All this is extremely important for the pregnant
woman who needs to have her body as healthy and strong as possible
in order to handle the rigours of pregnancy and
childbirth. Chiropractic care will help ensure that the reproductive
and other systems so essential for a healthy pregnancy receive
an un-interfered with nerve supply from the spinal column. The
slightest interference to the nerve supply could adversely affect
the mother and the developing foetus.
Pregnant Women Have Special
Concerns
There are so many things that
pregnant women worry about: staying pregnant, carrying the baby
to full term, "morning sickness", the baby developing
normally, backaches, leg pain and if their labour will be safe
and (hopefully) easy.
Can chiropractic care help ease
their minds? The experience of many professionals has shown that
a can. Chiropractic care during pregnancy can help women become
pregnant and maintain pregnancy, control vomiting during pregnancy,
deliver full-term healthy infants with ease.
Spinal Adjustments
Chiropractic care is especially
needed during pregnancy because of the many physical and chemical
changes the women's body is going through. Not only is her centre
of gravity changing because of the added physical weight she
is carrying, but her spinal structure becomes more flexible due
to a hormone produced by her ovaries called relaxin.
Relaxin relaxes the ligaments
in the pelvis, preparing them for stretching during childbirth
and can, in an already unstable spine, aggravate spinal problems.
Conversely, there is a possibility
that the more flexible state of the spine provides an opportunity
for easier correction of chronic spinal problems. A doctor of
chiropractic can check the spine to ensure that the pelvis and
vertebrae are functioning together as a unit and are properly
balanced.
Questions and Answers
Is it difficult for a pregnant
woman to receive a Chiropractic adjustment?
Not at all. Chiropractors are
trained in adjusting the spines of pregnant women and many chiropractic
adjusting tables have special modifications for the pregnant
figure.
Is adjusting a pregnant
woman safe?
Very safe and very sensible for
both mother and baby.
Can back pain be helped
with chiropractic?
Chiropractic is not a treatment
of therapy for back or spinal pain. However, with a chiropractic
spinal adjustment, the body will be better able to heal its back
and spinal pain, as well as many other health problems.
Do I have to have a problem
in pregnancy to see a chiropractor?
Not at all. Chiropractic should be used as preventative maintenance.
Periodic spinal check-ups during pregnancy should be as common
as periodic weight check-ups. |
